Stone Cold
by ladyamalphia
Summary: He is the fastest thing alive... and dead.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:**Woahh… do you see what I see…?

Could it be?

OH-EM-GEE it is. Ladyamalphia :o?! Long time no see, hmm? I hate myself :P. I just kind of disappear for four months. Seriously, the only review I've sent since like… May was to Anzgirlchibi (dude, my hero o: ) yesterday.

It's so strange. I mean, all I've done all summer long (and this is really depressing) is pecking away it this half-assed little comedy story that I'm not at all fond of anyways. Soo, yesterday, I was like…

"I think I should write something."

So I sat down and wrote this little piece of work :P. The title's a work in progress… I might change it if you guys like this story enough for me to continue.

--LA

* * *

Little old moi owns nobody. Yayyy I've missed writing sheetty disclaimers x333!

* * *

His funeral was surreal. Almost as much so as his death had been.

It was a bad dream. I'd heard losing loved ones described in those same words too many times. It felt unpleasantly cliché. But for me, they meant something different. Not the physical aspect of a dream; in thinking that it was too terrible for real-life, that I'd wake up moments later and he'd be soundly sleeping upon my roof. No. I knew that wasn't going to happen. I'd been right there when it happened. The image of his limp silhouette on the floor was still seared into the back of my eyes. For me, it was the vagueness, the numbness of everything that made me question reality.

Seated in the front row, I felt like it could only be that; a transparent, though admittedly elaborate, dream. My mind wasn't functioning – which I very much disliked. I'd glance at a teary-eyed someone, but still only take in half of their expression. It was as if fifty percent of my mind was needed to so much as comprehend that he was gone.

My memory of the past few days was full of blurry, empty splotches. Spots, I figured, where my brain had suffered waves of grief so total that it needed to concentrate all its power to stop me from exploding. I could only imagine my expression when I my mind took its little breaks.

I found myself standing at a podium.

I realized that I was supposed to speak. I then realized that I'd prepared a speech.

'_Speech?' _My mind inferred blankly. I blinked, feeling even paler than my new usual.

'_Was I… was I there while you were reading it?'_

My face was blank, despite the imminent turmoil going on behind it.

I was half aware of the silent crowd before me, though I was taking in none of their faces.

Hands on my shoulders. They were gentle.

I was seated again. Had I finished my speech? That wouldn't be any surprise.

But I became suddenly aware of supple grass beneath me.

"Tails…"

I recognized her voice after a second, but couldn't yet match it with a face. So, I looked up. That made sense, as far as I could tell.

Her voice had sounded sad, I noticed.

I had to stare emptily for a moment. It was so strange… my eyes worked fine. I could see her. But I wasn't fully aware of her, like she was only half there. Or maybe I was.

Amy, I realized. Yeah, that name clicked.

I intended to say her name… but found that I was short the willpower. Opening my mouth would take mind capacity, which I couldn't afford at the troubled moment.

'_Amy loved him.'_

That was right… Amy _had_ always loved him, hadn't she? Mmhmm. She had. I had too. That I remembered on cue.

"Let's go home."

She had spoken. Deciphering English was suddenly so difficult. It took ages for each word to sink in… as I had to look each up in a mental dictionary before it could make sense.

"Okay."

'_Was that one us?' _

I thought it was.

* * *

I was home again. I liked being home. My machines were there with me; we would sit in silence together mourning. Maybe they missed him too…

But I wasn't alone now. Amy was beside me. It occurred to me suddenly that the loss must have been torturing her almost as much as me.

I looked at her, willing myself to not block her out. She had escorted me home after all, despite her own obvious desolation. It was no easy task, but I tried to reorganize my mind.

It was like my computers. When I got too ambitious and tried to do dozens of things at a time, they would sometimes freeze. So I would have to check how much space each application was using up.

Well, because I needed more than half of my mind power to keep myself from melting down, everything else had to cram itself into the other fifty percent.

Concentrating hard, I mustered a weak smile. That was dangerous. I was honing in on the hundred percent mark… and I wasn't too sure what would happen after that.

Could I talk to her? Or would speaking be pushing my luck. Not in the mood to see what happened when I passed full capacity, I shakily tried to shift around my mental priorities.

My mouth opened… but the effort to do that came out of the part of my brain reminding me to breath.

That wouldn't do.

However, now that it was already opened, I realized that it didn't take any concentration. So I tried to talk.

"I miss him." I choked, feeling a hot rush of tears swell into my eyes.

It was too much. Those three words had crossed the line, and all of my carefully organized mental filing was thrown out of whack.

Sensing a breach, my senses leapt to regain their usual top-priority status, ploughing straight through my emotional guard wall without a thought.

Newly aware of my familiar surroundings, I broke down.

The sound of my own sobs reverberated into my ears with a new, refined clarity. I sunk beside her, weeping until my mind was cleansed of all percents and barriers.

It felt better.

* * *

His green eyes lay ghostly and empty beneath their scarred lids. The stronger-stomached of his friends had tried to position his body to be visually peaceful, but his broken limbs didn't help with their cause. Flesh cold, body contorted, and fur matted, he rested in the dark space of his coffin.

Many of his more optimistic, more naïve, friends refused to accept his death. Their hero could only be death-proof. They insisted to themselves that he would turn up at their doorsteps any day, grinning his usual grin and asking why they'd buried him under so much dirt.

So many times had the hedgehog evaded death… it seemed so impossible for him to be beaten. But he had been. His stationary heart was not-so-living proof.

The pessimists of the group could only concentrate on the troubled future. Without their main protector, there was nobody to stand between them and the world's evils.

The realists, however, bitterly accepted his parting. They knew he was gone and could only hope that he'd been happy when his eyes fluttered shut for the last time.

But, meters of soil below the surface, those shallow eyes opened again.

* * *

**A/N: **… I hate myself Dx. Like… SLLR, now this? I'm a sadist. I have a bunch of half-stories stowed away that are actually nice, and happy, but I just can't finish them :P.

Anywayss… It's really short, I know… but I'm just testing the water on this concept.

Soo… tell me what you think C:! I don't need to say how much I adore reviews, do I? Maybe I have to reinstate it considering my little vacation. Reviews are like… my most favouritliscous thing. in the world. booyah. Therefore, I appreciate them very much, especially on stories like this where it's a little out of the usual :).

So, should I drop it? Or is it worth continuing :). Please be honest about that… I only wrote this because I was depressed about not writing anything all summer.

Speaking of which, it's almost over :P. That went sorta quick. But I'm really excited, since I'm starting high school this Autumn :D. The schedules still haven't come yet… growlll… but I'm patient. Well actually, I check the mailbox twelve times a day. But still!

I've missed writing my stupid AN's :).

Thanks guys, please review :).

--LA


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: **My shortage of reviews saddens meee TmT. Echh. It's like being back when I first started! I'm an old FFnet pro now. Well sorta… it's been more than a year :P. So like… man. Sobbie McSobSob. I guess I deserve it for disappearing long enough to be forgotten by my wonderful faithful reviewers. Ahh well… just being back to writing makes me happy anyways :).

Also, I thought I ought to mention that this story isn't going to be some tragic love story like some of you might've guessed based on the first chapter… but nopee :P. I feel sorta strange saying this because it seems weird, but it's supposed to be a bit of a horror story…

(collective GASP from my teensie crowd)

Shut up and don't laugh at me XD. And it might be pretty pathetic :P… because I can't watch scary movies. I couldn't sleep for a week after I read Lord of the Flies. But we'll just see how it works, shall we?

Unfortunately, now that I've started, I'm morally obligated to finish too. Serious pet-peeve when people don't finish their stories /. But you don't "have" to read it…

I'd like it if you did, thoughhh :)!... please? Reviews fuel my life. Like… si vous plait.

--LA

* * *

You know, I've said this so many times I'm running out of ways. I do not own anybody I write about… because god forbid I write anything original :P. I don't like any of my original stories. Anywayys, onto the half-assed literature!

* * *

Amy's steps were slow and uncertain as she felt her way down the street. The darkness of the night was so total that she was as good as blind.

She was painfully aware of Tails' tears still soaked into her dress, weighing her down both mentally and physically.

A rogue raindrop landed on the shiny arch of her headband, not to be noticed. It trickled down the ruby plastic, colourlessly inky black in the night. Amy felt a raindrop of her own trickle down her face. She let her lids slide shut, as it made little difference in the ebony surroundings.

There was something about being in the total blackness that made her feel marginally better as she mindfully stepped down the deserted sidewalk. It was like wearing black velvet sunglasses that helped to mask the fact that the world was still spinning without Sonic the Hedgehog's regulation. Something seemed wrong about that. In Amy's mind, Sonic was Atlas, carefully and loyally holding the globe above his head in strong, protecting arms.

Those arms...

Words simply couldn't describe how much she would miss those arms of his. And on those arms he'd had hands. Those hands she'd longed so to hold, those fingers to caress. A jolt of tingling sadness shot through her body, making her cringe visibly.

Eyes still shut, her brows furrowed deeply in a subconscious attempt to relieve some of the aching pain. She let a weak sob of shaky breath escape her quivering lips, and stopped walking to collect herself. Her steps had been so steady, so constant, that her mind had half blocked the sound out like a second heart beat.

But now that she'd stopped, her ears rang uncomfortably. Like the velvet eye guard protecting her from visual distress, the fixed rhythm of her footfalls had been an unnoticed block from the audible world.

She bit her tongue and continued the steady amble, really only half aware of her surroundings. She only hoped that she hadn't been looking as unfortunate as Tails had.

His usually bright eyes had lately been dull and unresponsive… and it was fairly obvious that he hadn't been near a shower since the fateful day they'd lost Sonic.

Amy sighed. Through her closed lids, she could see the faint glow of a streetlight - a sure sign that she was nearing the main road.

The rain began to pickup, but she really couldn't muster enough motivation, or concern, to quicken her pace. Soon, the downpour was so intense that she might as well have been swimming. Her prized boots quickly became sopping wet and sloshing. Breathing a sigh of humid air, she let her knees buckle under her, and collapsed to the ground.

To her surprise, she felt the soft spring of grass below her. It was much more welcoming to her skin than concrete would have been.

But if the sidewalk had reached its end, then where was she?

In her blind trek, she figured, she must have stumbled her way off of the path. She blinked her eyes open, and tried to peer around. Her sight, however, was completely obstructed - partly from the torrential precipitation, and partly from the density of the darkness.

She pushed herself to her knees, and crawled in what she could only hope was a forward direction. She really couldn't care less whether or not she made it home before morning. After all, she had no need for beauty rest considering she no longer had anybody to be beautiful for. As she pulled herself along the ground, she wondered mildly what had become of the street lamp. Perhaps the deluge was so intense that it had become a solid shield of water.

Perhaps she might drown…

No. A death like that wouldn't be satisfactory… not by water, the thing he'd hated most. She wanted it to be something he would have liked; perhaps the exciting, dramatic end he'd never got. Admittedly, such a demise had never much appealed to her, but her mind had been since shaken, priorities rearranged.

Suddenly, she heard the soft sound of slow footfalls…

She furrowed her brow, but continued slowly.

Then, out of the darkness, something shifted. She froze, green eyes wide.

"_AARGH!" _

The hedgehog yelped in terror at the sound, and leapt backwards, petrified. She scampered away, fuelled by panic. In her frantic escape, her hands groped a rough object, a couple of feet in height.

Adrenalin pumping, Amy pulled herself behind it, crouched with her knees tight to her chest. She breathed shakily, entire body shaking with fear. She blinked, and tried to calm herself with what rationality the eeriness of the night hadn't taken.

She heard the hoarse voice holler again. This time, though, it was an angry chain of curses…

She slowly lifted her head. After hearing the voice utter such words… it became suddenly recognizable.

Amy peeked her head over the top of the rough item.

"Knuckles…?"

There was a moment of silence.

"…Amy?"

Through the blackness, they found each other.

"Amy," Knuckles said gruffly, helping her to her feet, "what're you doing here?"

"I'm not too sure actually…" Amy admitted. "I got lost. Where's here?"

There was a pause, and, despite the consistent pattering of rain, Amy could tell from experience that Knuckles was uncomfortable.

"Well…" he said uncertainly, with a long pause. "Look, I'll take you home, alright?"

Amy, not curious enough to press her question, shrugged and grabbed his hand to be lead.

"You know your way there in the dark?"

"Yeah," He replied, beginning to walk, "we've just gotta get back to the main road. Then there're street lights."

"All right."

* * *

Warm and safe at home, Amy huddled on the couch in a dry bath robe, buried beneath layers of blankets. Knuckles had gone to take a shower and clean himself up.

The hedgehog sighed, and nuzzled deeper into the downy covers, sighing with bittersweet comfort. For several minutes, she rested. Simply being home again drained all energy from her.

She let yet another tear drip from her eye, despite exhaustion. Over the past week, she was certain that she'd shed at least enough tears enough to fill an ocean.

She sighed, and fell into a full-out daydream. A tropical saltwater sea of tears spread along the flat land, a white sand beach stretched across its shore. It was a perfectly serene scene.

Miles from the coast, Amy found herself lying on a golden ring floating atop a shallow reef. The bullion lifesaver floated, its shining metallic finish glimmering in the searing sunlight. She took a deep breath as another tear slid down her face, dripping down and landing in the sea to join its peers.

A rainbow, kaleidoscope display of fish and coral beneath her stood out against the turquoise of the deeper water surrounding.

She tightly gripped her tinny float, relishing its warmth under her skin. And then she noticed the presence of a hand on her shoulder.

Wrenching her eyes open, she saw Knuckles, and forced a weak smile.

He smirked apologetically, and took a seat next to Amy on the couch. She sniffed, and shuffled closer to him, resting her head on his shoulder.

Caught off guard, the echidna found himself with a look of blunt and obvious discomfort across his face, brows deeply contracted, and mouth scowling. But after a moment, he blinked and sighed deeply, relaxing his tensed body. Admittedly, he and Sonic had never been particularly close friends, but he'd be lying if he said he didn't at all miss the late hedgehog.

Amy smiled to herself, though still teary-eyed.

"Hey, Knuckles?" She said softly.

He glanced over at her.

"Mmh?"

"Did he…" she began, feeling a lump growing in her throat, "did he ever talk about me at all?"

If there had been a moment of comfort for the echidna, it was zapped away just like that. He knew from experience that now was a time to choose his words carefully… women could be delicate, fragile, but mostly dangerous, when emotions took the wheel.

"Ahh…" He was at a complete loss for words. No, Sonic had never spoken of her… except every once in a while, to complain about the odd hammer-induced lumps on the top of his head.

Amy lifted her head from his shoulder, and craned her neck to stare with intense supplication into his amethyst eyes. She felt her eye ridge raise, and an expression of utter heartbreak rise to her features, but couldn't wipe it away.

"Did he?"

Knuckles shut his eyes and rubbed the back of his head with a large hand.

"Look, Amy." He said in a low voice, trying his absolute hardest to keep the awkwardness out. "I've known Sonic as long as anyone… and he was never really… open about that sorta thing."

The absence of even an immediate "yes" would have completely shattered Amy. However, the echidna's uncertain, stuttering reply was even worse. Pure proof that was more – much more – crushing than a straightforward "no" would have been.

"I loved him." She said softly, nuzzling deeper into the nook of his shoulder.

Knuckles exhaled.

"Yeah." He said dully. "I was kinda fond of him too."

* * *

**A/N: **Wizzoot C:! Chapterlicious. I take back what I said about that business up there, with my review complaints. That was then, this is now. Yesshh! Four is fine for me… at least on a first chapter.

I am so very not fond of this chapter. It was like… woah..? That soppy mess up there was supposed to take up a paragraph… like, maybe two max. How on earth did I manage to stretch it into half a chapter? Eww. Yeahh, T'was a dead boring chapter at that. Alsoo, that business with Amy and Knuckles was totally friendly. No romance between those two. That's not allowed. Knuxie gets Rouge… and only her. Gosh. Darnit. And Amy 'n Sonic. That is my religion.

Kay, about at the point in the story where Ames and Knux are first at her house, I had to stop and go through this hard-core epic housefly hunting incident. It was literally ten straight minutes of me turning in circles with a phonebook raised up above my head. I. friggin. hate. houseflies. Seriously. Like… I don't mind spiders, I don't mind reptiles… snakes… wasps, bees… anything like that. But shit, man. I'm petrified. And then, once I'd finally shooed it out of the room and slammed the door, I was like… HOLY MAN THERE'S ANOTHER ONE D:.

Dude, they're out to get me. Please send help. Actually, I hear that help stuff goes lovely to send with a review. I'd just lovee to be sent both of those.

LOVIN MY P'ZIMPIN READERS! Now and forever :).

--LA


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: **Soo…Sunday afternoon, after I uploaded the last chapter, I was like… woah. School starts Tuesday. And I was like… WOT! Everyone laughs at me for being so excited, but I'm starting highschool this year :)! It's big news C:. (By the time this chapter is finished and uploaded, it's no longer going to be Tuesday morning before school :P. But it is now… when I'm writing this. If you're confused, just go with "I wrote this author's note Tuesday morning before the first day of school.") Tada :).

Oh, also (Darkspine, you're gonna just love this one x3) there's all this stuff in the news about this new spider who's taken residence in our humble area. It's called the brown recluse spider (or something to that effect)… and when it bites you, you end up with like… some flesh-eating virus or something D:. So I'm like… ahh, hello… you're not supposed to be here. Canada is a safe place T.T. Shoo. Ohh hey :P. I just Wiki'd it (to make myself look much smarter. Wikipedia is like a pushup bra for nerds :D!) and it says "Despite many rumors to the contrary, the brown recluse spider has not established itself in California, nor Canada."

… Well, I still don't trust it x). I, for one, am looking in my shoes before I wear them from now on. Back in B.C (I lived there for a couple of years) we were supposed to do that to check for black widows :P. Anywayss… Darkspine, hope you enjoyed that and didn't pee your pants.

Ahh… I think that's pretty much all I can rant about just now /… so, thanks to all choo lovely reviewers and readers C:.

--LA

* * *

One of these days, we should all just revolt… and like… claim that one of us created Silver or something :P. And everyone else can vouch for that person. And we'll overthrow SEGA and be rich :B! 'Cause guys, until we do, I have to keep writing these silly things :P. I own nobody. 'Cos I am cool like that B-).

* * *

The monster was growing uncomfortable. Roughly two weeks had passed, and this dark space he rested was cramped and musty, and smelled absolutely putrid. Though he had no longer any need to breathe, or, thereby, to inhale, his dying nose was constantly tickled by the stench.

But that was far from his biggest problem. The discomfort was ignorable… the odor was trivial… but the aching hunger in his stomach was stubborn as a bull, and much more bothersome than the other two. It had greatly increased since that strange paralysis, which held him docile as they buried him alive, had worn off.

His eyes were slightly open, as they had been all along since he hadn't the drive to move, but he took nothing in through the darkness.

His insides churned and ached in pleading.

That irksome hunger… he so wished for freedom. And below even the desire for food, a burning anger resided towards those who had encased him in the earth.

But then again, he realized, pulling his fingers into a tight fist, it was only dirt…

* * *

The cake's sweet scent filled the cozy house, wafting through every room and leaving them smelling welcoming and warm.

Alone in her lacey bedroom, Cream the Rabbit sat, currently partaking in a stately tea party with a few of her more distinguished stuffed animals, and Cheese.

"More tea, Sir Pellington?" She asked a snowy white pelican with a home-made pipe cleaner monocle. She stared expectantly at him, holding the empty plastic teapot in one hand, pinky finger erect.

"Why, Lady Pellington!" She said in surprise, turning to a gray owl which had taken the place of the other bird's spouse, considering the bunny hadn't two pelican dolls. "Don't be ridiculous, he doesn't need to go on a diet."

She turned back to the gentleman. "One lump, or two?"

The party continued as Cream chatted politely with the lioness, Princess Rosetta.

"Oh, princess," the bunny said, extremely happy with what a good time her esteemed guests were having, "you're too kind. Could I offer you another scone?"

Cheese took a sip of imaginary tea from his own faux-china cup, smiling brightly.

From behind the merrymaking, there was a gentle knock at the door.

"Come in," Cream called in a refined voice.

Vanilla entered the room, smiling softly.

"How is your party going?"

"Very well, thank you!" Cream replied, beaming. "Would you like to join us?"

Vanilla smiled fondly.

"I'd love to, thank you."

She gracefully took a seat on one of the extremely undersized pink plastic chairs, watching proudly as her well-mannered daughter placed out an extra table setting before her, even placing a salad fork, perfect for eating imaginary delicacies of all sorts, in the proper spot.

After they sat for a few moments, quietly sipping their respective glasses, until the older rabbit spoke.

"Cream," she said sweetly, "after we finish our lovely party, would you mind running a parcel over to Tails for me?"

Cream nodded politely, but her mother could see the note of suppressed apprehension in her daughter's expression.

"I'm sorry to ask you to do it. I understand that it's hard to be around him right now."

Cream's cheeks flushed slightly, disappointed in her disability to hide the emotion.

"Don't worry, mother," she insisted softly, "I don't mind. He needs us to be with him, especially now, since he's having such a hard time."

Vanilla smiled and shut her eyes.

"That's right."

"What do you want me to bring him?" Cream asked, helping herself to a bite of a plastic biscuit.

"Don't worry, it's nothing too bulky. Just a slice of my cake, and some casserole."

She sighed. "The poor dear needs some nice, home-cooked meals. I don't like that he's been eating all that store-bought food. It's just not good for him."

Cream nodded.

"You know, mother, Princess Rosetta just announced her engagement."

"Did she really?"

"Yes." The bunny said, nodding with a proud glance towards the lioness. "To Lord Maskington."

She gestured in the direction of a stuffed raccoon, whose scone still sat uneaten on the plate before him.

Mother and daughter chatted for a little while longer on the social situation of various stuffed animals, until Cream took a final sip of her tea and got to her feet.

"Then I'll get going, mother."

"Thank you, dear, and thanks for the tea." Vanilla said gratefully, smiling. "The food is by the front door. When you get back, we can have some cake for ourselves, alright?"

"Okay, mother." Cream nodded, before turning to her guests. "Thank you for joining us. Let's go, Cheese."

The chao squealed happily and puttered after her.

* * *

The outside street was quiet whilst the two made their way. It was early autumn, so the leaves in the trees were just beginning to make their annual colour transition, their edges spotted with faint oranges and browns. The wind was crisp, but more on the refreshing side than cold.

Cream stopped when she reached the paved walkway leading to Tails' home, and breathed a sigh. Tails was just so different now.

Cheese landed at her feet, noticing the hesitance in her demeanor and realizing that something wasn't right.

"Chao?" He squealed uncertainly, tugging at the hem of her dress.

Cream smiled down at him, and lifted him into her arms, perking herself up. This was no time to be pessimistic, nevertheless.

She considered herself mature enough to mother a friend in need. Patience was important... just because she had mostly passed her devastation, and come to accept the fact that Sonic was probably never coming back, didn't mean that Tails had. He had lost his closest friend, practically his brother, after all. And she knew from experience that nothing was a better remedy for a long face than a nice meal.

So, the rabbit, equipped with a new shot of optimism, skipped down the path and knocked enthusiastically at the door with the hand free of baked goods.

Tails had gotten into a bad habit of not answering the door, regardless of how stubbornly the visitor persisted. But Cream was not to be distracted.

"Tails…" She called, rapping her fist against the metal again. "Tails, please answer the door. It's Cream!"

She waited another moment, then pursed her lip.

"Tails…" the rabbit pleaded in a softer voice, "please?"

There was a moment of silence, in which Cream almost considered crawling in through the window, until she heard the quiet clicking of the door lock.

Tails, or at least the sliver of him she could see, looked a sight for sore eyes. His fur was matted, its colour bordering brown, and the bags under his eyes could possibly top even Lord Maskington.

The expression on his face could possibly be mistaken for a smile, but would more likely be described as a sick grimace.

'_Maybe he's happy to see me…'_ Cream thought, _'and he's just forgotten how to smile.'_

Never the less, she greeted him with a glowing beam.

"Good afternoon, Tails!" She said brightly, as Cheese piped his usual hello of "Chao".

"Hey, Cream."

There was a silent pause. Cream, too polite to enter without being first invited, just hovered on the front steps for a few minutes while Tails stared in mild interest at the basket of food.

"I…" the bunny began, lifting the gift and passing it to him. "I brought you some lunch."

Tails cocked his head, and the shadow of a smile almost appeared on his face.

"Thanks, Cream." He said in a near whisper. She smiled sweetly, and dipped into a small curtsy, then turned to leave.

"I hope you enjoy it."

""Wait!" he hollered, voice suddenly loud in contrast to the previous whispers. "Will you eat with me?"

Cream grinned in delight.

"Oh, Tails, I'd love to."

The two had soon taken seats in a strangely immaculate kitchen, matching plates of food before them.

"Tails," Cream said in mild surprise, gazing around the spotless room, "it looks so nice in here!"

He smiled humbly, although the emptiness never seemed to completely leave his visage.

"I haven't really had too much to do."

They were hushed for a while longer, as they enjoyed their food.

"Cream," Tails said uncertainly, glancing around the room, "where's Cheese?"

She blinked.

"Cheese?" She called, feeling a rather irrational sense of panic rising inside. She turned to Tails, chocolate eyes wide.

"He must've wandered off while we were outside! I have to go find him."

Tails' eyes were on his shoes. "Alright."

Cream sensed disappointment in his voice. She stared at him in concern, then paused.

"Would… would you like to come help?"

His head snapped up.

"If… I mean, if you don't mind…"

The rabbit beamed, and grabbed his hand. "C'mon, let's go."

In the end, the chao was found playing in the heavily abused garden outside, and trying to figure out the dynamics of daisy chains.

"Chao!" He squealed happily, fluttering up to see Cream.

"Oh, Cheese!" she said in delight. "I'm so happy you're okay!"

Tails smiled fondly at them, as Cream noticed the tangerine tinge of the Western sky.

"Oh, my, it's gotten so late!" she said in surprise, "Mother will be expecting us home by now!" She turned to Tails. "Thank you for having me."

"Thanks for coming." He said in a coy voice. But as she turned to leave, he impulsively reached out and grabbed her hand.

She looked back, astonished.

"Really…" the fox said, blinking sheepishly. "Thank you."

Cream smiled and pulled him into a hug. They stood together for a time, her head resting on his shoulder.

Tails gazed down at her, and smiled. Genuinely smiled.

Once they broke apart, their eyes met. Propping herself onto tiptoe, Cream leaned over and pecked him on the cheek.

"I hope you feel better, Tails."

Two sets of cheeks tinged pink as Cream left the garden.

* * *

For the entire trek home, she might as well have been walking on clouds as Cheese fluttered in her wake. Plus, she'd succeeded in making Tails happy - she could tell.

The path home brought her past Sonic's burial spot, though she'd avoided the rout on the way over. Though it was well into the twilight hours, and the sun only just peeked over the horizon, she glanced in the cemetery's direction.

All appeared normal… except for a bizarre pile of soil situated near Sonic's grave. She furrowed her brow, and a momentary flash of walking corpses flashed through her mind. She quivered in fear for a moment, but was able to steady herself.

After all, she reminded herself, it was only dirt.

* * *

**A/N: **Okee, you can blame darn Windows Media Player and its trippy-tastic effects for the lameness of this here chapter. It's like… "and then Cream said…. Ooohh, circles."

I've decided that the reason for my fruitless writing lately is a Dr Pepper withdrawal. Seriously, I haven't had any in so long. Because really, my family doesn't eat much junk like that. My friends make fun of me for it, too :P. They're all "Oh, emma, I'm sorry! We didn't bring any organic spinach instead of chips!" And I only drank pop when I bought it myself. And I'm too lazy to go to the store lately, since I was never in town all summer, and because I don't get home until like friggin' 4:30 now. It sucks… the school's too far away.

But man, I am in love with high school ;w;! The whole freedom thing is just so great… especially since we're through with that DAMNED rule where we had to go outside unless it was below -25. My Science teacher, Mrs. House, is a psychopath, though x). In a good way. Like, she was badmouthing all the other teachers. "Holy man! You've got MRS BROWN?! She's SO MEAN! She made me cry every day when I first came here. And you have Mrs. Colbon? She's like 800 years old!" OH GOSH, and then there was this girl in science on Friday, and she had a seizure D:! SCARY BUSINESS! Like… Mrs. House was just handing out some stuff, so I was the only one who saw. This girl Natasha just sorta slipped off her chair, and nobody else noticed, and she was on the ground like… shaking and everything! So I was like… "Trouble…! Mrs house!" But I was all quiet because like… she was having a seizure, and I was kinda not sure what to say :P.

God, then after, my friend Ian (Yes, that one, MiLly XDD) was all, "Why were you asking for a towel, Ems? Did she like… shit herself or something?" and I was like, "Noo, trouble x3!"

So… that was the highlight of my week. Stay tuned for more ZaNy stories!

…

I should be put out of my misery. Seriously, would someone please shoot me in the face so I don't torture you guys any longer XD?

Anyways, I'm going to bed. Review, please C:! Ciao!

--LA

P.S: this chapter was, for the most part, written today and yesterday X3. 'Cause Saturday, I was like… hey, I update on Sundays. Tomorrow is Sunday. I've got 1500-odd words to write /. So I did. And like I said, Windows Media Player didn't help with the cause.

REVIEWW!


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: **Alloo, guys :)! Well, I'm in a pretty good mood today… My friend and I had the sweetest night last night XD! We played dress-up, and it was SWEET. The only problem was that all the dress-up clothes I own are made for the age bracket who're actually supposed to play dress-up. So in other words, they were all made to fit six year olds x). So, we ended up looking like faat sluts in our pictures because I was dressed in this princess dress that fits my five-year-old sister :P. I like looking at them on facebook :). Looking at those pictures is honestly my new hobby.

Ahh… same story as usual :)… I'm a happy, well-adjusted person… probably because I get such fantastic reviews :D. So anyways, thanks a bunch, guys :)!

--LA

* * *

Oh, and also, this chapter is dedicated to Azngirlchibi, because it was her birthday the other day :D! Yaay nine-eleven! So enjoy, sweet cheeks C:!

* * *

Nobody belongs to mee :).

* * *

The zombie's legs dragged across the dark beach, scabbed and rotting feet picking up kernels of sand with every step.

The endless drone of "braains" slipping from his mouth was monotonous and flat from decomposed vocal chords.

A high-pitched female giggle cut sharply into the air, echoing across the mirror-flat ocean.

"_No!_" the green hedgehog squealed in a tone of delight that contradicted her words. "Andrew, stop it!"

The two teenagers laughed and screamed as they fooled around, doing far from what their elders thought they should be doing on a school night.

Suddenly, the sound of a twig snapping made the girl draw away, ears erect and alert.

"What was that?" She asked uncertainly, eye ridge contracted anxiously.

"Awh, Amber, baby," the boy named Andrew cooed in a tone of forced sympathy, "It's nothing."

Amber smiled shyly, leaning back towards him.

"Yeah, I guess you're right."

And so, the couple loudly and gleefully resumed their shenanigans. But, oblivious to them, the background music began, its tone low and ominous, and dripping in foreshadow.

That was until… out of the darkness… popped the hideous monster. The smooching pair both screamed bloody murder, desperately scrambling over each other, trying to get the furthest away The whole scenario was a very firm and clear cue for a scream, but it was met with only a yawn and the click of a television remote.

Rouge stared at the vacant screen for a few more minutes, an expression of bored irritation on her face.

"Horror movies just aren't what they used to be."

She tossed the remote on the couch beside her and leaned back with a dull sigh, stroking the grand gem of outrageous size perched on her ring finger. The sparkling blue sapphire glittered lustrously even in the dull light cast by a short standing lamp at the opposite end of the room.

The bat's dim apartment was decorated with dark, bold shades of red and purple, the tangerine setting sun still shining through the gap between the heavy window hangings.

Rouge was, perhaps, one of those least affected by the loss of Sonic. In fact, the hedgehog had really never meant anything more to her than a cocky but worthy adversary with a cute bum. What really concerned her most that the affair had left Knuckles especially antisocial. And since Echidna-harassing was a hobby of hers, the past while had proven particularly drab.

Usually, Doctor Eggman could also promise some amusement. Whether it be by helping him out by snatching the odd chaos emerald, or simply sitting herself in a nearby shadowy rafter watching a harebrained plan blow up in his mustached face, she could almost always find something find of interest to do. But, she'd found out the other day by means of a rude guard robot shoving a quickly scrawled goodbye letter in her face, that the doctor had gone on a world cruise to celebrate his new, unchallenged state.

Actually, Rouge half hoped Knuckles might take over the hero position.

Not that she much cared about Eggman being defeated. Frankly, it would really make little difference to her. Should he suddenly seize a status of world domination, she could simply flutter over, perhaps flaunting an especially revealing rubber bodysuit, and talk herself back under his wing. He knew full well that she was a valuable asset. Or, come to think of it, she could really always avert him all together. She could move faster and stealthier than most of the robots she'd ever encountered, and her kicks could smash most troublesome machines without a thought.

No, she only cared that such a responsibility might just coax the echidna out of hiding a bit more often.

She absent-mindedly rapped her durable nails on the dark oak coffee table beside her, as the clock on the wall read nine.

A sudden sly smirk of inspiration split across her face. Being a hero was a good way to get him out and about…

But she had a better plan. One that didn't depend solely on the unlikely event of Knuckles actually wanting to leave his precious shrine to become a superhero.

Mischievous smile still on her face, she swanked to the bedroom.

Half an hour later, she'd wrestled into one of the usual skin-tight outfits. In her opinion, dressing deserved to be an Olympic sport. She'd heard lines in explicit rap songs boasting about getting into jeans… but those singers had nothing on her.

Dressed, she swaggered to the washroom. Makeup generally took almost as long.

Rouge generally liked doing her eyes first. Eyeliner and mascara probably made up a quarter of her body weight.

After about the hundredth stroke of the mascara brush, she batted her lashes and smiled in approval, flashing a dazzling smile which was in need of a proper ruby frame.

The glitter of lip-gloss as her finishing touch, she put on her most polished, much-practiced sensual face.

She glanced over her shoulder at the tall standing mirror on the opposite wall. With an arsenal of an outfit that left nothing to the imagination, a sparkling face, and two other huge assets, she winked one heavy lid.

Who could resist?

* * *

A fine mist hung over the empty streets as she glided, careful to stay well above it in order to avoid condensation ruining her careful makeup job.

Rouge could see the silhouette of the island, a lowlight in the starry sky.

Though she was deep in fantasy, the muffled sound of quick footsteps reverberated through the evening air. She furrowed her brow slightly, and fluttered to the sidewalk below.

"Hello?"

There was no answer, although the steady _pat pat pat _persisted. The bat frowned mildly, but commenced to lift herself back into the air. However, as she rose a few feet into the air, she felt a clammy hand grasp a tight hold around her ankle.

Instinctively, she blindly slammed her free heel down onto it to break the grip, ears receiving a satisfying crunch in response. She turned midair to identify whoever had been stupid enough to try and sneak up on her, but felt her face contort in revulsion.

Disgust and horror both raced to be the first reaction, tussling and zooming through every nerve in her body.

Horror won the race. Not a screamer by principle, her mouth was clamped shut as her wings worked deca-duty to thrust her as high into the sky as she could go.

The creature cradling a partly crushed hand was so grotesque that Rouge hardly recognized him. The thing that disturbed her most, beyond the empty, shadowed eyes… beyond the decomposed features… was that she had.

Soaring through the sky at top speed, with a surge of relief, she saw the floating island begin to near. Still too much in shock to set down on the mossy ground, she flew all the way to the shrine itself.

As her altitude decreased, so did the adrenalin, which had been solely fuelling her escape.

The moment she dipped down and her feet made contact with the bottom stone step, she noticed blood. A lot of blood.

The final thing she heard before unconsciousness took her was a very loud, horse voice shouting furiously.

"_WHAT THE HELL ARE-"_

* * *

When Rouge regained awareness, she found herself lying on her back with the cold of the stone floor chilling her wings. She furrowed her brow as a pulling sensation from her left leg reached her mind. Blinking away a mild headache, she sat up to see what was causing the tightness.

The bat couldn't hep but grin when she saw Knuckles. He was on his knees at her side, a patch of her suit chomped in his mouth. She noticed in dismay that her should-be snowy white boots were blotched red with blood. However, seeing him was consolation enough. He growled, and gave his mouthful a frustrated shake, evidently still oblivious to his chew toy's consciousness.

"Jesus, pica!" the bat remarked, quickly remedying the weakness in her voice. "I think I've got some graham crackers back home if you're that hungry…"

The echidna simply froze, his jaws still clamped tightly onto a bunch of rubber suit. Slowly, his eyes crept up until he strained to face her.

After a silent moment of Rouge smirking with her brow raised, and Knuckles paralyzed with sheer shock, the red-faced echidna finally blinked himself out of the trance.

Suddenly livid, he spat the material from his mouth.

"_WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING HERE?!"_

"Oh, relax, Ginger." She said dismissively, waving a hand. "I just came for a vis-"

"_WHAT?!_" he bellowed, flying to his feet. "_YOU JUST DECIDED TO DROP BY AND BLEED EVERYWHERE?_"

She rolled her teal eyes.

"Yeah. I just thought this place could use some colour."

The echidna, having cooled slightly, simply glared daggers.

"How the hell do you get that suit off, anyways?

Rouge smiled slyly.

"Why, Knuckles," she began playfully. He shut his eyes, knowing where the comment was going. "You don't need to wait until I'm unconscious to get my suit off."

"I was _trying_," he said flatly, "to clean your injury."

"I see… and you couldn't think of a more effective tool than those pearly whites?"

"You were bleeding all over yourself." He said defensively. "It seemed pretty urgent at the time."

"Yes, well," she remarked mildly, unable to help being a bit touched by his concern, "believe it or not, I've got even more exciting news than your riveting ER yarns."

"Oh yeah?" he said, eyeridge raised. "Care to enlighten me?"

"I met an old friend on my stroll over here." She paused a moment, Knuckles looking only mildly interested. "But frankly, I've got to say the past few weeks haven't been too kind to him."

* * *

**A/N: **God, I adore Knux and Rougiee ;w;! I actually don't MIND this chapter :D!

Okay :! MOMENTARY breach of my well-adjusted…ness… in pm's do hyphens show up :OO?! Because I just made this discovery the other day that, I don't think, they do. AND THAT IS SCARY. You should've seen my face :O!

I mean like… WHAT kind of signature is "LA"? IT'S SO VERY DULL! "--LA" is my signature ;mmmmm;! And if that's never shown up, than my WORLD IS SHAKEN! MAN! SHAKEN! I AM DEVASTATEDDD! Like… what am I supposed to do without those --'s?! FREAK OUT, THAT'S WHAT! Seriously, have those NEVER shown up in pm's D:!? That's HORRIBLE.

…

In other news, I'm still happy :). Reviews are nice… I like them… wanna give me somee :D?!

Thank you for reading alsoo :)!

Ciao C:.

--LA

(see how pretty that looks TmT?!)


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: **Know what's exciting :)? So You Think You Can Dance: Canada. Man, I friggin LOVE sytycd. Twitch was my favourite :). SO anyways, it was exciting to watch. But that's not my point. I wanted to say… Right.

I wanted to say that we're total losers x). Like… where do they go in normal SYTYCD…? LA or something. And they're all… "WOOT, I'M GOING TO LA!" But for us, it's Toronto. And they say like… "YAAY, I'm going to TORONTO :D!" And it's like… pff. Toronto. You're a loser. Doesn't that sound so strange :P? "I'm going to TORONTO"

Toronto just doesn't seem like THAT big of a deal to me :P. It's funny. Like… I think about it, and we really don't have any cool cities. "I'M GOING TO OTTAWA!" "I'M GOING TO WINNIPEG!" Like really :)!

Oh and heyy! You wanna know what I discovered yesterday :O?

So my sister, Madeline, was watching Stuart Little, right? And I go to sit next to her, and I'm like… HOLY MAN. IT'S HOUSE! And it is :O! The adoptive-daddy on Stuart Little is House :)! I like that show x). I think I might possibly be ADD :P :D.

Soo, anyways… I'm so very happy with the reviews I've been getting C:. You guys are SO awesome :)!!

--LA

* * *

You know what'd be crazy :O? If like… Webster's put copyrights on all the words in the English language. And they'd like… officially own everything because everything's name is one of their words :O!... oh, except the really cheap companies like… vacflex. Or ShamWow. XD, shamwow. My mommy ordered that :D! Trust me, it's not as amazing as the goatee guy says. But yeah, since Webster's isn't the antichrist, they haven't yet pulled that business :P. So… all the characters in this chapter belong to SEGA :). The words, on the other hand, belong to me. Or at least the… combinations of words :).

* * *

The Emerald's shrine, along with its new paint job, sat still and uncharacteristically empty.

Deep in the densest part of the island's jungle, however, contrary to its regular tranquil silence, currently hosted one of the loudest square meters for miles around.

"_OW!_"

"_Hey!_ Whaddaya think you're-"

"_WATCH IT!_"

The two, equally vicious voices spat venom at each other.

"This is all your fault!"

"_What _are you talking about?"

"If you hadn't just _swooped _in so gracefully, _I _wouldn't have to here!"

"Such selfishness… Honestly, I'm surprised at you."

She received just a growl in response.

The heavily divergent pair was trekking their loud way through a narrow, single-person path with hanging vines disallowing much room for movement – the only clear way from the shrine to the edge of the island. Rouge was airborne, as her ankle roughly resembled mincemeat. She was actually fairly sure that it had been her own defensive kick which had caused the laceration in the first place.

The bat uncomfortably picked at her waist. The suit hadn't fit properly ever since she'd awoken from Knuckles' ridiculous attempts to free her leg from it.

"So what's your problem anyways?" the echidna demanded, glancing over his shoulder.

"I already told you." She remarked irritably. "I saw Sonic."

"We're back to _that_ story again?" he groaned, crossing his arms sceptically. "What, he just popped out from under six feet of dirt to pick up a couple chilli dogs and terrorize some pedestrians?"

Rouge rolled her eyes, but didn't answer. Even she had to admit that it was hardly a believable story. She was preoccupied with the fruitless undertaking of adjusting her skin-tight outfit to its regular state of almost-comfort. There were a few moments of silent marching, until the bat finally lost patience.

"That's it." She snapped, halting and sliding to the jungle floor.

Knuckles turned on his heel impatiently.

"Oh, what n-"

He, however, suddenly found his mouth too dumbstruck to speak. His jaw dropped stupidly.

Rouge, skilfully supporting herself on one heeled foot, slipped off her newly ruby boot and tossed it aside. Pursing her still-glittering lips in concentration, she carefully slid a tiny, glinting knife from the opposite boot and set to slicing apart her troublesome outfit. Starting not an inch from her hip, she cut a long incision around each upper-thigh, and then rolled the material down until the lower half of her outfit consisted of a dangerously short pair of shorts. Once both legs were free, she discarded the other single boot.

Using nothing but her swift dagger, she soon reduced the suit to little more than a set of lingerie, top now covered by only her pink heart. She sighed contently.

"Much better."

Pausing for a moment, she glancing at her awed spectator.

"Tickets for the strip show sold out yesterday, sweetie."

The echidna just blinked, still partly stunned. He desperately scrambled for something witty to remark back at her, but his mind came up empty. Slack-jawed and bewildered, he managed to eject a dumb 'heh'.

Rouge smirked and gracefully leapt back into the air, casting him a suggestive look over one bare shoulder as she glided past.

Their procession was silent for a while, until they reached the sheer edge of the floating isle. Knuckles poised himself to dive down to the ground, but the bat tapped him on the shoulder.

"Oh, I don't think so." She said flatly, shaking her head and touching down beside him. "There's no way I'm going back down there again."

The echidna narrowed his eyes in mild disbelief.

"You're afraid…"

Rouge snorted dismissively and waved a hand.

"Don't be ridiculous." She said offhandedly. "I just don't want to ruin my outfit any more." She flexed her body into a few glamorous poses, admiring the newly exposed contours of her waist and legs. "I've actually gotten kind of fond of this new style."

Knuckles grinned suddenly.

"Alright…" he said in a completely unconvincingly tone. "Whatever you say."

"_Fine!_" the bat snapped, her temper flaring suddenly in defence. "Have it your way. Let's go."

She lead the way, leaping into a dive off the edge. Once the plummet took her inches from the ground, she swooped into a speedy horizontal whoosh. Knuckles just watched for a moment in smug amusement, then followed suit in a much less elegant manner.

The echidna kept in distant pursuit; far back enough to be out of range of even a well-aimed kick, but near enough to subtly keep an eye on her. Of course, he was much too proud to ever admit it, but he couldn't exactly complain about the view he had before him.

Up ahead, he saw Rouge halt, and landed beside her.

"What is it?" he asked uncertainly, glancing around in the darkness.

"_Shh!_" Rouge hissed, eyes narrowed anxiously. "I heard footsteps."

"It was probably just some-"

"_Hush!" _she growled, index finger raised warningly, her keen senses alert. Knuckles just shrugged. After more than a minute of silence, he began to grow inpatient.

"Footsteps…" he muttered irritably. Rouge angrily smacked him in the chest though the rest of her body remained attentive and still as a statue.

There were a few more moments of hush, but the echidna's short patience was quickly running out.

"That's it." He grumbled. "I'm leaving."

But Rouge wasn't paying him any attention. Her eyes were fixed on a spot far beyond him.

"Knuckles," she breathed, reaching out with a hand to grab his arm. "turn around."

Sighing impatiently, he obliged. But to without the bat's night vision abilities, he saw nothing but the late night's velvety ebon.

All of a sudden, he detected the quick pitter-patter of feet that Rouge had been aware of all along.

Before he, or even fast-witted Rouge, had time to react, he felt himself being snatched around the middle by a swift figure. Rouge received a concrete strike in the back of her head.

The sudden velocity at which Knuckles was traveling came too quickly for him to do anything but bellow furiously. Travelling at dangerous speed, he felt the back of his body slam solidly into a tree.

He flung a fist out in front of him, but the black of the night was so total that the punch met only empty air.

Rouge's heavy eyelashes batted her awake.

The mystery attacker dove again.

Knuckles heard Rouge shouting his name, and almost thought he could hear her heavy wing beats - even through the noise of his attacker's assault.

He could feel himself picked up high in the air.

Rouge was still several meters behind the scene and flapping her wings fervently. Though she was moving as quickly as she could, she could only watch the last few seconds of the fight until Knuckles was carried away – so quickly that he was gone before she knew what had happened. There was no way that she could catch Sonic.

"_Oh..._" She breathed shakily, still not completely awake. She carried herself up to a tree branch and landed with less grace than usual. There was a break in her cool for several minutes as she tried to pan through the sludge of dismay which was her mind, hoping to find something productive.

When her search came up fruitless, she fretfully decided that the best place to be was home.

No memory of the actual flight remained in her mind. Too many other things were clogging her memory.

So, before she knew it, she found herself leaning against the mirror wall of her apartment building's elevator. The space had an extremely claustrophobic feel to it, even though the four reflective walls created a kaleidoscope effect of the infinitely reflected bat that brought to mind some large, uncomfortably open space.

The bat's eyes crept to their reflected counterparts. There were thousands of her, all staring with an identical look of hurt and shock… of loss and frustration.

Each breath drawn a quaking gasp, she raised a fist.

One punch to shatter the mirror. One punch to eliminate all those ever-watching eyes.

But her wrist didn't carry the death blow into the mocking glass. Instead, she gingerly lifted the jewelled hand and wiped away the heavy layer of cosmetics from her right eye.

'_Beep'_

The elevator's tone sounded, preceding the doors sliding open. The familiar figure her newly clean eyes met sent an automatic message to her knees, finally letting them buckle with exhaustion. She slumped into a pair of shocked arms.

"_Rouge_?"

* * *

**A/N: **I know this chapter is a day overdue… but I've had at least 24 hours worth of sick leave over the past week. It's not cool… it's like the kind of head cold where you're too sick to function well enough to pick up a pencil in one try, but not sick enough to stay home. ECH. My face hurts.

… yeah. So this hasn't been the most high-quality writing of the century… I have to say I kinda lost Rouge a little bit, eh /? That makes me tres sad. I disgust myself. But I liked that mirror part :P... you know, the should-be depth and everything X)? You know what, shut it, it SO was very... deep... and metaphorical x). I fail.

But le gasp… what suspense… who could this MYSTERY visitor of Rouge's be :O?!

And there was a bit of a Mulan-esque moment in there at the end, wasn't there x)? When shall Rougie's reflection shoowww… who she is… insideee!

Speaking of Mulan, the other day I bought myself the most amazingly wonderfultastic Disney piano music book. Like… seriously, LOVEIT. Right now, I'm trying to play though "God Help the Outcasts", and "Someday" from The Hunchback. So very pretty. I love my piano… 'cept it's kind of a piece of junk. Honestly, the top two octaves are flatter than… than… Fat Albert's bike wheel. … OHO! You have to admit that was a good one XP. I'm just a regular Peter Griffon. … Yeah, and the sustain pedal squeaks like you don't even know :o. I want a baby grand :).

So anyways… thanks, people :D!

R-E-V-I-E-W!

WOTWOT!

--LA


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: **Salut, my good friends :D.

So, bad news x3. My (not-so) innocent head cold has made itself quite comfy in my lungs. ECH.

I would admire the little germies for that great migration… were it not for the fact that I can't breathe :P. But, I mean, I have to admit I saw it coming. I had this big lung disease issue thing when I was just a little baby, and I had to spend like a month in the hospital, so now I'm really… susceptible to lung… troubles x3. So every time I get a cold, it ends up turning itself into this FAT chest cough bronchitis thing. It's really not cool :P. And I have to sleep with this big, noisy humidifier an inch away from my face so that I don't cough my throat out.

This chapter was really, really slow going. It did NOT want to cooperate with me. Like, by Saturday, I was hardly past the first paragraph. So then I got into my usual "OH-SNAP-I-SHOULD-BE-DOING-HOMEWORK-BUT-I'M-NOT-GOING-TO-BECAUSE-I-HAVE-A-CHAPTER-TO-WRITE" scenario :P. I don't really like writing Cream as a serious character :.

Thanks so much, mes amis! I adore you guys to death. KNOW THAT!

--LA

* * *

Fingers drummed a quick, steady _rat-tat-tat _on the hard, stony ground. Not in playing out a catchy drum solo stuck in the head. Not as a sign of irritation or impatience.

But as a method of desperate pain relief, in place of agonized screaming. Concentrating on keeping the high-speed pattern balanced almost helped, along with gritted teeth and near painfully tight fists.

_Baby, __ring, middle, index, thumb. _

In that order, the fingers of his left hand were keeping him in a sane frame of mind. Keeping the rhythm constant was some aid. A concert pianist could envy the even tempo being kept by a pain-driven inner metronome.

Knuckles inhaled a deep breath of damp, muggy air. Though his lids were clenched closed, he knew that near total darkness surrounded him. Such was his anguish, however, that he wasn't concerned with his critically endangered predicament.

As each rush of blood pumped through his damaged lower half, a stab of burning, throbbing pain promised to follow.

However, even beneath his physical torture was the constant stream of the underlying fury that he was famous for. If he dared make any sound more than his drumming, he would've been roaring and swearing torrentially. But vocalizing his ferocity would only attract the beast.

He hesitated to label it as Sonic, but the way his short-fused mind worked, something (be it an inanimate object, a close friend, or a should-be-dead hedgehog) needed to take the blame so that he could direct his flaming anger at them, even if only mentally.

But, in his already strained mind, rage was laboriously pushed aside so that full concentration could be put towards not exploding for pain.

Though his back was to Sonic, he could just hear a faint shuffling. Moving with sloth-worthy slowness, he cautiously raised his head over his shoulder. The action sent spasms of pain through his body, but he was disciplined enough to fight through them. He could see very little, but his eyes were steadily adjusting.

Suddenly, as soon the other side of the damp dwelling came into view, he saw something streak past.

A hand clammy grasped his shoulder.

* * *

Fingers tapped the soft leather arm of the black sofa. The bat was anxious.

However, Rouge's mind had cleared some.

Beside her sat a stone-faced Shadow, his arms folded across his chest, too uncomfortable and irritated to feel any sympathy for the bat's distress.

The pair sat in silence, Rouge still partly distraught with worry. She had earlier insisted that the hedgehog come into the apartment, only to find the entire affair nerve-racking. Her troubled mind refused to relent.

'_He's okay.'_ She told herself firmly. She knew that the stolen echidna was physically stronger than Sonic had ever been, hands-down. But the aspects of speed and wit greatly lessened her hope. She had always considered Knuckles marginally pathetic and dumb, but, god, she hoped she'd underestimated him.

However, she decided, there was no sense in worrying too much. The echidna was missing in action, but he'd always proven to be tough.

Shadow was still uncertain as to why he was there. He'd only dropped by in the first place because things had been bizarrely quite, and Rouge was the only person to whom he was close enough to justify paying a visit, since he hadn't been able locate Eggman. The bat was, in his opinion, one of the hardest people to be around because of her unbroken sarcasm, and inability to take anything serious.

"Rouge…" he growled flatly, getting straight to his point. "I need your help."

She raised a brow. It was a surprise to hear the always-proud Shadow say such a thing.

"You don't say. Well, tiger, what can I do you for?"

He closed his crimson eyes with no amusement.

"I need a chaos emerald."

She grinned. So much as the mention of those words were helping lure her mind away from its frets. Knuckles was quickly falling from top priority now that a gem had entered the picture.

"Another one?" She inquired playfully, turning her body to fully face him. It bothered her some that he hadn't shown any reaction whatsoever to her scandalous outfit. Most boys could guarantee at least a jaw-drop. "Why, Shadow. Did you lose the last one already? Getting a little careless, aren't we…"

He glared, but dismissed the question.

"It's hidden somewhere, and I can't get to it. I need you to-"

She waved a hand.

"What, that old show?"

Shadow looked blandly affronted at her lack of interest.

"Oh, I'll do it." She assured him. "Things've been way too quiet lately. But what do I get out of our little deal?"

Rouge had clearly in mind what she wanted. She just enjoyed teasing with him. For a moment, she waited for his reply, a mischievous smirk on her lips.

The hedgehog was stubbornly silent. He easily sensed that she was trying to play with him, and wasn't about to be her chew toy.

Rouge smile faded as she realized he wasn't going to humor her and play along. Sighing in annoyance, she rolled her eyes.

"Fine." She said dully, deciding the fun was going nowhere, and thus to lay out her terms. "If I help you, you have to do me one small favour in return."

Shadow could only dread what the devious bat might possibly have in mind for payment. Horrible scenes of tight leather, whips, and whipped cream grimly flashed through his mind.

The bat, well experienced with the male mind, could actually read Shadow's troubled expression for once. She grinned again.

"Oh, it's nothing like that, sweetheart."

His face remained blank, but he secretly breathed easier.

"Then what do you want from me?" he inquired darkly.

"Rev up the Mystery Van." she elaborated slyly. "I want you to help me catch a monster."

* * *

The smile on Cream's face had become almost constant. Over the last twenty-four hours, the only vacation her lips had been permitted was while she slept, and she reckoned that even then a faint smile persisted. She was mainly in such a good mood because of her success with cheering up Tails. For her, the kiss hadn't meant anything more than a sign of gratitude. But it'd been a nice sentiment nonetheless.

At least she thought it had been only inconsequential…

Humming a bright tune under her breath, she lightly stroked the top of Cheese's round head with one finger. The chao had dozed off on the kitchen table beside their lunch of cucumber sandwiches and chocolate milk.

To her right, set aside for the meal, sat a small piece of beaded thread. The trifle was a bracelet that she'd absent-mindedly put together earlier that day, but had taken a liking to. The beads were pretty, pastel colours set in a lovely pattern.

"How's your lunch?"

Cream looked up from her plate.

"Oh, hello mother." She squeaked brightly. "It's wonderful, thank you."

Vanilla smiled fondly, taking a seat across from her daughter at the circular table.

"You're so cheerful lately." She remarked with a smile.

Cream giggled, but her smile faded for a moment.

"I just wish everyone else could be happy too."

"Oh, Cream," Vanilla softly comforted. "They'll be alright."

The younger rabbit nodded.

"I know."

She then looked up.

"I think I'm going to walk to Amy's. Would that be alright?"

Vanilla smiled.

"Of course."

* * *

**A/N:** Pick up the MASSIVE amount of foreshadow on that "_walk_" to Amy's... DUNDUN. Oh, god :P. I tried so very hard to end it properly. Stories don't like me. I think I should be nicer to my brain… you know, less four-hours-of-sleep nights?

Okay… I had a bunch of things to mention… but naturally, NOTHING is coming to mind.

Ohhh. So, I've got a wholee big epic story to tell! (MiLly, just sit through it. She's already heard it :P).

Okay. So, over the past few years, I've developed this thing… where I faint. So, it's trouble. Mostly, it's just that I get super dizzy and stuff when I stand up, and every time I get out of the bath and stand up, I just pass out. It's pretty bad. I mean… a hard bath full of water isn't the best place to faint, eh X)?

Soo… I didn't really complain at first. You know, I'd wake up with a couple of bruises, but that was it :P. But then one day, mommy heard this biig crash from the washroom. I'd knocked down all the shampoos and stuff and landed on the tile floor :P. It wasn't nice at all. So she made me go to a doctor's appointment, right? Just so I wouldn't split open my skull any day soon. SOO, we made an appointment and I fasted for 12 hours.

It was really scary, though :O! Mommy had me COMPLETELY terrified before going. She was like… "Emma, are you wearing clean underwear?" So I'm like… "umm… yes? Why do you ask..?" "Well, Dr. Toppin might need to check you out DOWN THERE."

D:!

Like…

D:!

So I was completely traumatized walking over there. And then it turned out I didn't even have to fast for that appointment because it was at like 6 pm, and the blood clinic was closed. SO then, he just asked me some questions and took my blood pressure… and he deduced that it's probably just low blood pressure, but that I should go get a blood test anyhow.

So I did. This was on… Friday. We had a PA day at school, so I was at home. My parents were like, "okee ems, you should go get your blood test done while we're at work!" And I was likee… "Ohnoo! All by myself?!"

So they made me go all alone. SO, I sat in the blood clinic ALL BY MY LONESOME for an hour, until this guy called me over.

He sits me down at a chair, and ties a rubber band around my arm… all of this I'm okay with. I knew it was coming :P. So then, he takes out all these awful needles and I need to look away.

So he sticks it in me, and there's a bit of a pinch, but I mostly just didn't like the whole concept of the thing being stuck inside of me. But then, honestly five minutes later, the dude's like, "OH, there's the vein!" and I feel another pinch, and it's like… WOW, sir, what've you been doing while I sit here trying not to panic :O!?

So thenn, he starts taking out the blood, and I'm not feeling great. I think it was mostly just nerves. But then, my eyes started… ahh, how would I describe that :P?... you know when you push into your eye sockets with your fingers and they get all fireworks flashy? Well, my eyes go like that. I thought it was just that I was stupidly anxious.

And he's still going at it. He's like, "are you okay? You look a little pale…"

"YES! BECAUSE YOU'VE BEEN SUCKING MY BLOOD FOR FIFTEEN MINUTES ;M;"… But I didn't actually say that x). So then, he finally tells me that we're all done. He offers me a bed to lie down in, because now I'm white as a sheet… so I'm like, yes please.

Then, he stands me up, and starts walking me through the waiting room to their… beds :):P? And at this point, I can feel myself losing it, right :P? My eyes've almost conked out. The last thing I can remember, was trying to lead myself with a filing cabinet for support.

And then, just like that, I see this nurse dude's face right up in mine. It was amazing! It was exactly like in movies where you wake up and see all these people crowded around.

I've got this bad habit of saying "I'm okay" and "sorry". So, the whole waiting room's like…

"OMG, is she okayy?!"

And I look up, and I'm just like, "… sorry… I'm okay…"

And THEN, the guy helps me back to the little room, and I ask him for a drink of water because I feel nauseous. So he grabs this garbage can and holds up the lid for me… and you can just tell that he's got this HUGE inner battle going on inside.

"Oh, NO! What do I do?! Should I get the girl the water she asked for so she _doesn't _get sick… or should I stand here and HOLD OPEN THE GARBAGE CAN?! I know she can't handle that on her own :O!"

But then I felt better :P. And then they told me to wipe myself with a special wipe thing and then pee in a cup, but I didn't have to pee, so the nurse told me that I could just take a jar home and bring it back later. Lucky me!

Ahh… and then I had to go and get that thing done where they stick these stickers on you, and attach power chord things. Yeah.

So then, I could finally go home, and it was like… yaayy, home.

AND THENN! I lost my health card on the way home because I shoved it in my pocket to try and cover the pee jar because it was embarrassing to hold on the elevator.

…

So, there's my big, amazing story of the week x). It's practically as long as that fail chapter, isn't it :O.

Hmm… still coughing up a storm…

That's enough talking for tonight :). It's eleven, and I've got some homework that was pushed aside.

Sorry for this lameoo chapter! Reviews, si vous plait... :D?

--LA

OH! and PS! I think the FFnet alerts are broken :S! Sorry if I haven't... reviewed or whatever! I don't even think pm's are going through. FF needs to seriously sort out some of their bugs D:.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N:**Hello, ladies and gentlemen; boys and girls of all ages! Sorry so much for the long wait :)… like… the two month wait… hmm. I have half a good reason, though :P? Some mobsters tied two tones of textbooks to each of my feet, then dropped me off a bridge into a river.

Metaphorically.

So yeah… in other words, my teachers are the antichrist. Honestly, this entire month has been completely ridiculous.

However, I think they should have some mercy…? Hopefully…? Because my legs have started to deteriorate from sitting at my desk twenty-four hours a day… and my hands have grown these horrible muscles and look like watermelons. I can rip a phonebook in half now BD.

OH! AND WHO SAW CSI! WHOO!?!?! HOLY SCREAMING MAN!! … yeah, the CSI where Warwick died D:?! HOLY MAN. I was crying for the first, and last, ten minutes of that episode. Warwick was like my favourite ;m;… along with Grissom, Nick, Catherine… everyone but Sara. Warwick was high up on the list, though :(. 'N he had those great eyes. Yeah, Sara's annoying. It was good she left… and then bad she came back. Grissom can do much better. BUT YEAH! Was that not the number one saddest thing?! LIKE… SOB SANDWICH!

Hmm… I've kept you nice people waiting long enough. I know you've just been on the edge of your seats waiting for this chapter ;). Yep, I bet it was ALL you thought about.

Well, anyways, thank you for your patience :).

--LA

P.S: I take it back :)… my teachers are nice. Sorry, guys :B :D!

* * *

No fingers stirred. In fact, not even a heart beat.

Dried blood had left mottled patches of his coat several shades darker, and his lids hung at a halfway point down empty eyes. His body was mangled almost beyond recognition, contorted into an awkward, unnatural position on the dank ground. In his former glory, Knuckles would have been enraged to see himself lie there, dead, so stripped of any and all dignity.

The squalor of the cave floor was repulsive, a festering swamp of assorted bodily fluids heterogeneously blended with soil, and little islands of minced flesh. The damp space smelled intensely rank, though nobody was around to take displeasure in the nauseating smog which may, possibly, have contained some minute amounts of oxygen.

The distant resonance of quick footfalls would likely have made the thick puddles quiver, were it not for their ridiculous consistency. He entered the cave in a flash… perhaps enjoying the rush his speed that being six feet under had inhibited. Admittedly, it was arguable whether or not he could enjoy at all.

If he did, his expression certainly didn't show it. The inch-long line across his muzzle was poker straight and empty of any emotion. He reached down towards his fallen former-ally with a partially-gloved hand.

The gesture almost seemed marginally compassionate… until he extended his index finger and gracelessly prodded the echidna's breathless chest. When his victim showed no response, he lowered his eyeridge indiscriminately. A bizarre spark inside triggered him to look borderline confused. This was new to him. These novel things – which he didn't know to be emotions – were greatly disliked. Simple, primal animal instinct was so much easier to maintain. Hunger, for example.

Luckily, his hunger was satisfied for the moment. 'For the moment' being the key words. But even despite the satisfaction of his stomach, he found himself restless. The hunt and kill had been such a wonderfully exciting experience. He had been in his element, and he had enjoyed it. Yes… enjoy.

An unreadable, dull expression on his face, he realized that he _had_ taken pleasure – such a human emotion – in the entire situation. But now it was over… and he didn't like that.

He looked at the still body at his feet. The corners of his thin mouth slowly crept downwards.

The frown, however, was far from a sign of sadness. It was confusion, which quickly evolved into curiosity.

Those blank eyes, with their empty violet stare, blinked.

That frown, such a novel concept, automatically morphed itself into something even stranger.

Teeth bared, the cat smiled at his awakened former mouse.

Slowly, Knuckles rose to his feet. He was hungry.

* * *

Amy's house had been silent and peaceful, as was the norm this early in the morning, up until a moment previously.

The chirping of her doorbell was loudly and persistently interrupting the consistency.

The should-be slumbering hedgehog groggily lifted her bleary head as an annoyed groan slipped from her mouth.

She urged the untimely guest to leave her be, sending vicious mental vibes in the direction of the front door.

"_Go away._" She growled, groping around for a pillow to wrap around her harassed ears.

No relent.

Forcing exhausted arms to lift her from the blissful plush of her bed, she, in a state of groggy anger, made her way through her cozy home. Despite the powerful presence of forcefully feminine pink laciness everywhere throughout the space, the place felt frigid and foreboding in comparison to the wonderful warmth of her bed. She sleepily dragged her feet over the clingy carpet, semi-consciously trying to defuse her infamous rage so as not to explode, leaving her mal-timed visitor with one or two hammer-induced welts.

Who knew… maybe whoever it was had a good reason for waking her up in the middle of the witching hour.

Her half-asleep shuffle eventually brought her to the door, which she pried open, trying to plaster a welcoming smile on her face. During the course of the second it took for her to pull the slab of wood open, she realized that that attempt was doomed to fail. Her irritated lips were in no mood to smile, and so they just sunk back into a slack scowl.

The massive, watery bowls of chocolate pudding that met her instantly melted the anger, which was, without hesitance, replaced by surprise and concern. Cream's puppy dog eyes were staring up at the hedgehog, looking heartbreakingly terrified.

"Cream?" Amy said in surprise, reaching to hold her friend. "What's the matter?"

The red-eyed, tearstained bunny stood there for a moment, lower lids rising and lips quivering, before collapsing in a sobbing heap into Amy's arms.

She tried to say something, but her uncontrollable bawling wouldn't allow any words to come out any clearer than mud.

Maternal instinct kicking in, Amy led her caringly to the welcoming living room, switching on the lights. It was just then that Amy noticed just the shape her poor friend was in. The delicate orange of her torn dress was flecked with gravel, and her fur was misshapen and windswept. They took a seat on the yielding, velveteen couch, Cream still trying to spit out her words.

The hedgehog wrapped her arms around her, pulling her in tightly. Amy gently brushed a speck of partly engrained soil from Cream's ears, which were pinned to the back of her head.

Amy could only imagine what force of nature or otherwise could have brought the rabbit to this place, and at this hour. After a moment of solid, indeterminable blubbering, Amy decided to get to the bottom of the whole affair.

"Cream," she said, gently prying her from her chest, "what happened?"

She spoke with a determined, but kind, firmness, looking the bunny square in the eye.

The deliberateness of Amy's voice helped Cream to stabilize herself. She heaved a breath, but it seemed to catch in her lungs on the way in, triggering a new bought of tears and an incomprehensible muddle of syllables.

Amy sighed and shook her head, but reminded herself to be patient. Patience was a notion she found hard to compute at the moment, while her eyes still itched with sleep.

It was then that she noticed something very different about Cream's presence.

"Where's Cheese?" She asked, mostly to herself.

Cream was silent for a moment. Apparently, the absent-minded comment had touched something sensitive, hopefully something that might make the bunny finally verbalize her reason for behaving so disturbingly strange.

She shakily raised her head, dark eyes no longer spilling, but suddenly full of such pure dread that it was even harder to look at than the tears had been.

She opened her mouth, though only enough to let the tiniest of words slip out.

"Sonic…" she whispered, lip beginning to quiver anew.

Had any other but Cream been clutched in her arms, Amy may have snapped back. Everybody was aware of here sensitivity to the subject, second perhaps only to that of Tails, who still wasn't the same. It was arguable whether he ever would. At least Amy had healed enough to function and interact like her old self.

So, she, putting generous amounts of restraint to keep calm when the topic was such a testy one, bit down on the inside of her cheek.

She wished Cream would just continue to speak, but the doe seemed to have reached some sort of mental impasse.

Amy's jaw quaked slightly with effort, but she managed to open her mouth enough to speak three heartbroken words.

"What about Sonic?"

Amy felt tears steam in her eyes, and a marble materialize within her throat, but suppressed the urge to throw Cream from her arms and fall into the bittersweet relief which would be the sofa.

"I saw him…" Cream whispered.

Saw him. Automatically, simply because of those words she had chose to use, Amy's mind instantly materialized Sonic's face. It was too much. The soft utterance had crossed a very obvious line. A meter-thick line painted in neon paint, and marked with big yellow signs every few feet, that nobody in their right mind could possibly overlook.

Amy expelled Cream from her grasp, and quickly got to her feet, just as her eyes finally let go the buildup of salty tears. Hugging herself tightly, as Cream relapsed into a new fit of tears, she hurried in a miserable gate until she hit the wall, to which she clung like a child.

It would have been quite pitiful to look at, the two girls at opposite ends of the room bawling their eyes out because of a complete lack of communication. It went on like that for quite a while, Cream crying into a pillow, while Amy's hands clawed at the floral wallpaper, desperate for relief from her own memories.

"_Amy,_" Cream sniffed after several moments of wordless, pointless, feminine sadness, "he took Cheese."

The hedgehog gulped down a breath, unsure what to think. It was late, dark outside… an afraid-of-the-dark Cream could easily have mistaken any figure for an undead Sonic. But then again, the fact remained that _someone_ had appeared out of the night and chao-napped poor cheese.

Allowing herself another moment to dry her eyes, and calm her breathing, Amy turned back to her friend.

"Okay then, Cream," she whispered, bundling the rabbit up in her arms, "let's go get him back."

* * *

**A/N: **Okay x)x)x)… this next part is just me being an idiot. It is in no part… canon to my story or whatevvss. It's a stupidly amazing inside joke between MiLly 'n myself. Oh, ps, MiLly (for anyone who hasn't heard me say this before) is my dear darling best good buddy, also known as Midnight Lullabye. That's just too much of a mouthful for a lazy-ass like myself to type. So MiLly is the nickname I bestowed upon her C:.

HOWEVER, feel free to join the fun :D. For full affect, go now to your limewire, itunes, youtube… somewhere you can have music to accompany you B). NOW, get everyone's FAVOURITE song ready to play… that's right…

THRILLER! :D.

You'll want a version that has the beginning dialogue part… y'know, with MJ and the chick? Yeah. You know what, just go here:

www . youtube. com / watch? v = AtyJbIOZjS8

Okay… ready?

PRESS PLAY!!

_Due to my strong personal convictions, I wish to stress that this story in no way endorses a belief in the occult._

_Ladyamalphia_

Heavy breathing…

_Ha huu.._

_Ha huu._

_Ha huu. _

_Ha huu…_

A car drives through the night, thick with the sound of crickets chirping. Oh wait, I think they're actually frogs. What kind of suspense night sound is that?

…

It comes to a stop

…

We see inside the convertible, a young couple… Both female? No. Just Sonic (his face looking slightly plastic-surgeried) and Amy, out for a casual drive.

Sonic gears down with a sigh.

Amy, dressed in a bad Eighties pink top, looks at him in mild suspicion. Why is he stopping?

"Honestly-" Sonic assures her quickly, "we're out of gas."

"So," Amy says softly, still not convinced that this isn't just some ploy to get that awful Eighties sweater off of her, "what're we gonna do now?"

Sonic gives her a look… maybe sheepish? It's hard to tell through the cosmetic surgery.

We see two pairs of bad, Eighties shoes walking along the road. Amy's mid-shin length purple bad Eighties skirt, which would obviously go just swell with her bad Eighties sweater, sways as she walks.

As we look up at their torsos…

Oh, my. It's not a bad Eighties top and bad Eighties skirt, but a very bad Eighties dress. Good lord, who was in charge of dressing this -

"I'm sorry I didn't believe you." Amy says, sounding sincere. She puts a hand on Sonic's arm.

"Could I ask you something?" He says.

"What?" She replies, smiling under that awful Eighties… hair… bonnet… thing…

"You know I like you, don't you?" He asks timidly.

"Yes,"

He pauses and adjusts his arms.

"And, I hope you like me… … the way I like you…"

"Yes," Amy repeats. She's really baring her soul here, eh?

"I was wondering if…"

OH the suspense…

"You would be my girl."

"Oh, Sonic." Amy says, stepping forward to hold him.

Oh, god, what _is_ that hair thing anyways!

They release, and Sonic pulls something shiny out of the pocket of his alright Eighties jacket. It's one of those classic high school ones.

Amy, beaming, raises her hand to admire the ring, while Sonic grins at her.

"It's beautiful." She says fondly.

"Now it's official."

… pause…

"I have something I wanna tell ya."

"Yes, Sonic?" she says, doing one of those bad Eighties head nod-shake things and smiling, maybe expecting another gift or something.

"I'm not like other guys…" His face is straight and serious, but Amy just keeps being a bad Eighties female.

"Of course not!" She says. "That's why I love you."

"No, I mean I'm different…"

"Whaddayou talkin' about?" she asks in a sorta playful way.

SUDDENLY, we see the moon…

Dark clouds quickly blow over it by a wind that wasn't kind enough to send a gust strong enough to blow away any of our heroes' BAD EIGHTIES CLOTHES.

So anyways, the music's all… _OOoohoooho! Scaarryy fluutee!!_

Sonic twitches… He begins to fall to the ground.

Amy looks at him in concern, though her arms are still glued to her sides.

"Are you… okay?" she asks quietly.

Yeah, obviously he is.

Then, he lets out a scream, and sinks to the ground!

"Are you alright!!?"

"_Uuuggghh!"_

"GO AWAY!" He's got these big awful yellow eyes! And badly animated werewolf teeth.

Aah!

Amy screams, but doesn't move. Maybe the awful Eightiesness of her bad clothes is weighing her down too much to move.

And he changes into a lame werewolf! AAHH!

WE HERE SOME MORE SCREAMING! AND SOME STRETCHING SOUNDS! BECUAUSE THAT'S THE SOUND YOU MAKE WHEN YOU TURN INTO A WEREWOLF THING. AAHH!

His nails and ears grow long…

AND…

HE GETS WISKERS! AAHH!

AND NOW SONIC LOOKS LIKE SOME SORTA SICKLY PERSIAN HOUSECAT!

Amy's still screaming with her hands up…

Sonic checks out his hot new hands, making this sorta "EAAHRAA" monster sound.

KAY, so finally Amy runs away! We can see her bad Eighties dress stand out against the dark backdrop of the forest.

Sonic roars, and looks around.

Now, there's a big chase scene!

Sonic's knocking down trees! AAHH!

He howls, even though he's obviously a genetically modified Persian!

Amy's fallen to the ground, and Sonic's gonna eat herrr! AHHH!

But then, it's all a movie!... being watched…

By Sonic and Amy!! AHH!

Sonic's chewing his popcorn super loud.

"can we get out of here?" Amy asks, now dressed in a new bad Eighties outfit.

"No, I'm enjoying this!" Sonic says, eyes glued to the big screen.

"Well, I can't watch." Amy says poutily.

"'_scuse me…"_

Sonic sticks another piece of popcorn in his mouth, then gets up to follow his gal.

That oh-so-catchy tune begins in the background…

"It's only a movie!" Sonic laughs outside the theatre. He's dressed in this orange startrek vest thing.

"It's not funny." Amy says quietly. Whiny bitch.

"You were scared." Sonic says, grinning.

"I wasn't that scared." She replies quietly, looking offended.

She turns away while Sonic chuckles "you were scared…"

HOH, man, check out that BIG Eighties hair!

They're walking down the street in the dark…

Sonic catches up.

"It's close to midnight…" he sings, doing a side-step dance to keep up with her. "somethin' evil's lurking in the dark!"

He claps his hands…

And… yeah, listen to the rest of the song. I'm too lazy to finish. Just think of me when the zombies are doing the dance!

The end.

* * *

**A/N: **Okay… how amazing was that x)? That one was for you, MilLs! It's _probably _best to not ask. Eck, sorry for taking such a long time to update! I'm fully aware that I am dirt.

Okay, man, I'm typing this… and in the other room, I can hear the most. annoying. thing. in. existence. Have you ever heard that car commercial where it's like… "Save by zerooo!" OH MY GOD. It's like five minutes of different cars pushing around a giant red zero!

"Save by zero… save by zero… save by zero…"

UGH. And then, at the end, it's like, "Save by zero! Save by zero!"

Je-sus.

OH! AND! YES! HYPHENS! YES! YESS! FFNET GAVE THEM TO ME :D!... I definitely think they did it just because of me being so upset before :). I'm SURE I'm the most valued writer on the website. I mean, it's not like any of you know how to wri –

TOTALLY kidding :). I love you all to the moon and back! Okay! No more huge gaps between the chapters from now on C:.

G'night!... review if you please!

--LA


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: **Shit. I fail.

Again.

I'm so sorry, guys. SO sorry. Okay, I know I'm going to start sounding like SUCH a broken record, but once I get to this ONE spot, it's going to be smooth sailing! The next chapter should do it, actually.

Okay. Here's the deal. If I take more than two weeks to update, YOU send me an entire arsenal of angry, obnoxious "WTF EMMA HURRY UP" pm's :). Use lots of chatspeak, and just be a big, awful bully until I deliver. It'll work, too, since I'm really anal about my inbox… everything's organized nicely and whatnot.

But, in my defense, it's not like I haven't written anything! During the gap between chap. 7 and now, I've uploaded two – count 'em, two – pieces of writing. First was one half of a silly two chapter story featuring Captian Olimar, called 20 Days Since Impact XD… and second was the first chapter of Midnight Lullabye and my collab, A Matter of Time. VURY EXCITING! So be sure to check those out :D… especially the latter. We've been working at it for ages C:!

Plugging aside, I bet you thought I forgot about Rouge and Shad's escapade. Well, I so didn't :). I just needed a chapter of self-punishment. I plan to redeem myself for screwing up poor, defenseless Rougiepoo. No more OOC for me! Eww, that was nasty. She's not friggin' Mulan. Excuse me while I cut my wrists C:.

All done. So… we've racked up about 40 reviews :). I'm pretty happy with that number. I really have no idea how many chapters the story's going to have, but there's still quite a bit of story left to write :D.

Ahh… anyways, read away!

--LA

* * *

It would be a lie to say that Rouge had never felt nervous. It was a rare occurrence, but far from unheard of.

Tonight was creeping ever closer to becoming once such case.

As she surveyed the property spread out before her, she could feel sweat cooling on her back, trapped beneath the waterproof material of her suit. The beating of her heart was practically in sync with the quick flapping of her wings.

Not, of course, due to the mission itself. In fact, she was quite eager to partake in the promised challenge. She really doubted there was anything that could throw her off too much.

No, she was simply suffering from a stuffy, haunting fear clinging to the back of her mind. She felt like at every moment, Sonic might spontaneously burst out from behind that tree… from under that car. She was airborne, of course, but his unmatchable speed paired with his new visage of evil made her feel insecure.

Not to mention that every beat also felt like another nail hammered into Knuckles' coffin. However, she'd mostly gotten over that dread, having cornered herself into a belief that the echidna had gotten out of much worse. So perhaps it would be more accurate to use thumbtacks in her analogy. Each beat was a thumbtack.

She breathed slightly easier.

"What do you see?" Shadow asked from several meters below. The bat had noticed over the time she'd known him that he had an odd trait to his voice, where he never seemed to need to change volume. There were very few instances where she could recall him actually whispering, or shouting or that matter. He just seemed to speak. Nothing more, nothing less.

She paused to think before replying. The owner of the place, of whose identity Rouge hadn't cared to ask, seemed to be a fan of lasers, as the wicked beams crisscrossed almost every square inch of the evidently rich man's front lawn. She made the assumption that he was wealthy based on the deep, pure green of the grass. Nature didn't make that colour. Money and growth hormones did.

The regal-looking manor itself, a massive cube of crimson brick, was bordered with a short, tightly wound hedge, then an expanse of emerald lawn highlighted in a grid pattern from the web of lasers hovering an inch above.

"It shouldn't be too much of a problem for me," She called down, "I mean, I can just fly straight to the house." Unlike Shadow, she actually needed to raise her voice to make it audible. "But unless you want me to carry you - which can be arranged - you'll have to think of a way to walk without touching the ground."

"Fine." He growled, backing up a few steps. "Get out of the way."

Rouge watched mildly from above, swooping back away from the tall stone fence that enclosed the property, the hedgehog sprinted past her and flew over the wall, springing from it. He soared through the air, leaving Rouge's eyeridges raised in approval. With a push of her powerful wings, she zipped forward after him.

Shadow seemed to defy gravity as he flew, but it was apparent that he wasn't going to make it all the way to the house from just that leap. Rouge wondered if he needed her assistance. Somehow, she doubted he did. Just in case, she swooped a touch closer.

But he proved himself very capable.

The move he pulled off was ridiculous. She would have thought it showy if it hadn't ended up being so efficient.

One finger… the index, to be exact… of his right hand. Just that single digit slid, undetected, between a square of beams. He then used that minimal contact with the earth to propel himself the rest of the way, coming to a graceful stop on a hansom window sill.

It was probably the stupidest stunt she'd ever seen. It wasn't particularly risky, nor was it all that impressive to watch. It was simply stupid. Really, a finger.

Rouge let out a laugh of disbelief, landing beside him.

"I'll give a ten for the landing…" she said, grinning slyly at his expressionless glare, "but that dismount cost you a few points."

The hedgehog didn't show any sign of acknowledgement, simply setting to getting through the window without setting of some sort of alarm that was most likely present.

* * *

Once inside, they met their first obstacle, which turned out to be marginally less of a doozie than either had anticipated. The pair stood below a great, white archway, feeing a cool breeze from the hole in the window across the elegant sitting room. The entire place smelled like a rarely-visited library.

"You know what's funny?" the bat asked mildly, running her finger across the dusty surface of a pillar in admiration of the old house's archaic architecture, "That the guy doesn't even live here."

She had meant the comment to be an invitation for curiosity. He was supposed to ask just how she had deduced this tidbit, while knowing nothing about the man himself.

But, of course, he didn't bite. Rather, Rouge received only a grunt in reply.

"Let's get moving." He growled at her rolled eyes.

She strutted into the hall.

Yet another field of, you guessed it, wall to wall red lasers.

"Really," she scoffed, "he couldn't think of anything more creative?"

"I guess he couldn't." Shadow said flatly. "So stop complaining and keep an eye out."

The bat sighed dully. This was exactly why she had no romantic interest in him. Albeit undeniably good-looking, he was just plain boring. Perhaps it hadn't always been that way… perhaps the, in her opinion much overplayed, trauma of the Maria fiasco had taken it away from him. It was no excuse, as far as she was concerned. Everyone had lost some things.

But that really didn't inspire the pity or empathy that it might in some others. The melodrama of it all just made her want to roll her eyes.

The majority of their mission was dry and uneventful.

"Why did you need me for this in the first place?" Rouge remarked after they'd cleared the monotony of yet another drab, blinding fit of lasers.

Shadow was stubbornly silent, but for the scuff of his shoes on the floor as he stepped.

"I mean," she said mildly, noticing Shadow's feet stop, "if I had a place like this, I'd sure–"

"Shut up_._" He hissed sharply. Rouge's head snapped up indignantly.

"Excuse me?"

That lit her fuse. Shadow was standing like a statue, one hand raised in the air, and ears alert.

"What's the matter with you, anyways?" She demanded, ignoring his body language.

The hedgehog slapped a hand across her lips to silence her. His strong grip made speaking impossible, but the indignance shooting from her dangerously narrowed eyes made it very clear that Shadow was on very thin ice.

"_Listen._" He growled in her ear.

She swallowed her pride for only a moment and obeyed.

_Tick… tick… tick… _

It sounded like some sort of clock hidden in the walls. But, Rouge noticed, the spaces between each beat grew shorter, as the should-be steady tempo seemed to quicken. Rouge let out an "_oh_" that never made it through the smothering glove.

Shadow pushed away roughly, and ran. Rouge lit to keep up. Personally, she would have searched for the bomb to defuse it, but Shadow seemed to know what he was doing.

It was curious the way the sound of the explosive's timer seemed to fill the entire mansion, no matter how far they ran. Maybe the whole thing was just one big bomb.

But they didn't have time to think about that. They'd given up all care of being caught, considering the entire house was due to explode any moment, and now shot straight through the three more laser fields that met them.

"We're almost there." Shadow called harshly, not missing a step. Sure enough, the glow of the final laser cage came into sight.

It was a revealed to be a quite matrix.

The lasers intertwined and danced in a complex pattern of light, the power of their combined brightness blinding. And at the center of the tight mesh, the emerald sat, grandly set upon a hansom marble pedestal, though neither Rouge nor Shadow had time to appreciate any of that.

They blasted through without a thought, slowing down before the white emerald.

"Hello, gorgeous." Rouge said pleasantly, fingering the gem's contours. She knew they were in no major rush now – the bomb's ticks told her that they had at least thirty seconds more, and Shadow's Chaos Control could get them out in an instant.

From the side of the room, a glitter caught her eye.

"_Hello, gorgeous!_"

Dwarfing the chaos emerald, a brilliantly set ruby ring sat, sparkling warmly behind a pane of easily-broken glass. Not even taking her eyes from the treasure, Rouge pushed away from the chaos emerald, and drifted towards her new prize. She dreamily shattered the window, half-noticing the shards as they caught the lasers' lights.

She extended an arm, realizing in pure delight that her hand would barely be able to grip the giant rock.

_Tick… tick… tick…_

"Rouge…" Shadow growled warningly.

She readied for the pleasure of touching the stone, but when her fingers closed in, they only met each other.

She gasped scandalously.

"_ROUGE!_" Shadow roared, enraged. So he could shout. The bat snapped around to see that the emerald had disappeared, its stand descending into a quickly sealed hole in the floor.

Snatching up her wrist with force enough to make her cringe, he furiously plunged his hand into his fur and pulled out a glowing red emerald. He'd had one all along.

They were gone from the place just in time to catch the intense heat of the explosion.

* * *

**A/N: **Okay. First thing's first. Does anybody living below the goddamn permafrost line have an attic in which I could crash? Because I'm cold. I've been shovelling ;m;. Seriously, guys, shovelling a driveway is the worst thing in the universe. I belong in one of those places far south where they think Canadians are igloo-dwelling beaver eaters.

Actually, my great uncle brought a beaver for Canada Day supper once (not that I ate any :P)… but that's beside the point. We've been getting like 8 cm of snow each and every night for the past three weeks. It just KEEPS coming.

Aanyways… Ehh. I'm tres not happy with this chapter :/. This story's not going anywhere fast. I've got this one point that I can't wait to get to, when I know things'll start going more smoothly.

OH! Guess what I discovered the other daay :D! You're going to want to grab a piece of paper and a pen for full effect. Okay. So draw a big chunky 3-D "$" dollar sign, with the edges all squared… and make sure to put only one line through it. Okay… so now, turn your paper 90 degrees… and what do we end up with…?

LA with my hyphens through it :D! Amazing, no!? Yesh, this guy in my science class was drawing those on his binder, and I was like :O! Who jacked my signature!? Oh wait, it's a dollar sign. Now, take it and turn flip it so it's upside down…

SAME THING! Isn't that just fantastic?

Anyways! I finished this chapter... and no more gaps. I mean it this time.

Ruuvviieeww ;w;.

I love you!

--LA


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: **Well, well, well! Hello, friends :D. I toldja I would update on time C:. Tuesday is on time now. Yess, Tuesday is my new Stone Cold updating day. So no need for "WTFEMMA" pm's after all. Sorry for the disappointment… but the deal still holds for this week :)!

Believe it or not, the thing that's stressing me out most right now, even with exams fast approaching, is art. UGH. Okay, so for art, we don't have an exam... which is lovely and all, I don't have to go to school that day, but we're doing this culminating project, a calendar. And I'm so behind with it. I mean, I've got 100 percent in art right now, but you can't get the credit if you don't finish. I know that I'll finish it… but that doesn't stop me from stressing out over it. We're supposed to be on day five or something, but I'm just so far behind schedule :P!

Oh well. It'll be fine. I just need to be reminded to breathe every once in a while.

Oh! And from now on, I'm going to be updating on Thursdays (:. MiLly and I decided that would be best, now we're also updating MoT on a weekly basis (Fridays, to be exact!)

Hmm… things've been pretty somber around here lately. One of my friends lost her older sister last Monday in a car accident. It's really awful, the poor thing. And, I mean, she was the last person to deserve that. She's one of the sweetest, happiest people I know… I just hope she's okay.

Anywaya, sorry for that x).

Readandrevieww!

--LA

* * *

What a dreadful sound.

It raked at the inside of his head with furious claws, shredding away at his ears. He could hardly move in a straight line, those squeaks and yelps made him cringe so. He, of course, had no way of knowing it, but the noise was Cream's sobs, as she and Amy made their way down the other side of the block.

The other watched him, not understanding. Though he could hear the same noise breaking the night air, it didn't bother him.

At both of their sides sat the partly-eaten, round little creature. He sat in static, which Sonic and Knuckles didn't mind. He'd been an irritating little insect, fluttering around just above their heads until one finally figured out that the way to go at the situation was to leap up and grab him.

Around them, a fine mist rose from the ground, making the air moist and cool.

The echidna roared furiously, his minimal patience finally snapping. He pounded his fists against the side of his head, trying to muffle the noise.

Sonic growled in annoyance. He continued forward, self-appointed alpha of their twosome. Knuckles didn't seem to be aware of the social status situation, but he was too troubled to object anyway. Sonic wondered, if you could really call the blunt inquiry cycling through his mind wondering, whether or not he would be better off simply re-killing the creature.

He gritted his teeth irritably, finally striking one hand out to deliver a sharp hit.

Knuckles snapped up, brow low, a growl emanating from his throat. He seemed to have been put in his place, though he sent Sonic a mutinous glare which was occasionally interrupted with a wince.

The two stood still for a moment, both listening to the girls' loud trek through the night. Knuckles half-consciously chewed the inside of his cheek. He started forward, clearly set on extinguishing the sound. Maybe he'd get a meal out of it, too. The little blue one hadn't exactly been filling.

Sonic shot in front of him, stabbing Knuckles with his hand again. He glared warningly, and turned away. When Knuckles tried to follow, he was met with another sharp strike. The body language somehow spoke even to his primal mind: stay put.

The echidna roared in objection, but Sonic had already disappeared.

* * *

"Cream, it's okay." Amy said impatiently, trying to think through her friend's miserable calls. Shouting like a banshee, the bunny had spent the past hour sobbing Cheese's name into the cool night. She looked up apologetically, cheeks pink.

"I'm sorry, Amy."

The hedgehog sighed. She wondered blandly if the sun would be rising any time soon. The street was empty, naturally. Particularly empty, it seemed, of any sign of Cheese. Even though her shouts could likely make most anything inaudible, Cream kept her ears perked askew for the slightest sound.

The girls walked on along the sidewalk, though Amy often found herself drifting from full awareness. She tried, for Cream's sake, to keep her eyes peeled, but they didn't want to focus, and she hadn't the energy to whip them into shape.

The bunny hesitated before letting her right foot touch down.

"Amy," she breathed, voice threatening to rise to an ear-splittingly high pitch, "did you hear that?"

Amy paused, swiveling her ears to pick up the noise.

"Footsteps." She said softly, hating the word as they slid past her lips. Those footsteps which had so seldom carried their owner in her direction. They could be no other's.

When she saw him zoom out onto the road before them, Amy's feet froze in their boots, suddenly too heavy with emotion to function. An instinctive fear in the back of her head screamed to run, flea, hide… to simply get away. But her chest was tight, compressed, paralyzed. Perhaps she'd drown in the fog. Perhaps that would be better than this; seeing his face again.

Only half aware of Cream's whimpers, she felt her own face contort into an expression of renewed sadness as that original wave of loss washed back over her, but she couldn't keep away the hope in her eyes. She felt arm come slowly forward as she dragged her feet in a hobble towards him.

He saw her. He was looking at her, but he couldn't be seeing her. Never could he stare at her with that look in her eyes. His eyes wouldn't let that look seep into them.

"Sonic," Amy half sobbed. Her voice seemed to be out of reach.

He didn't react to the sound of the word.

Amy had, deep down, half hoped it might be like a fairy-tale. The sound of her voice, softly speaking his name, could shake him from the monstrous form. He'd embrace her, like she'd always dreamed. The holes in his gloves would mend, and their hands would brush against one another.

He rushed forward, clasping both arm in a bone-shattering grip around each of her arms, and pinned her against a lamp post, letting out a bellowing roar into her face.

"_Cream, go._" Amy yelped. The bunny, giving her a horrified look, then disappeared behind the bushes and slid out of sight. Amy prayed that she'd run. Run straight home and padlock the door.

Sonic took one small steps forward, rankly exhaling in her face. She couldn't help but take in a shallow breath, though it caught in her lungs. Once, this had been Sonic.

"Sonic…"

Neck askew, she held her cheek against one shoulder, suddenly wanting to be nowhere near his touch. He disgusted her; his smell, his clammy grasp on the bare fur of her arms. But she feared what she would see when she looked into his eyes.

His hands tightened to the point that it was unbearably painful, and Amy let out a muffled, 'stop'.

She quivered beneath his fingers. Then, Amy felt him give her body a great shake, forcing her face into the open. Their eyes clicked together for only a fractured moment, two different shades of green meeting.

Amy let out a choke of tears at their emptiness, but his hands held her still. Though quickly snapped her head away again, she could feel that his eyes were still set upon hers. He gave her another shake, like she was a rag doll. Again, and again, until she finally returned the stare.

He peered imploringly. No intelligence, but there was something there. Amy felt an inexplicable rush of calm flow through her limbs.

"Sonic," She repeated once more, unable to stop a hint of hope and curiosity from lifting the end of the word.

Suddenly, he thrust his face into her quills. She could feel the tickle of his inhaling nose.

She tried to breathe, eyes peering frantically around. One of her hands placed themselves on his chest. She noticed it really wasn't all that much different. A small amount of force had him withdraw.

Amy looked at him, not noticing that he'd softened his grips on her arms. Again, his eyes didn't say anything to her. But she couldn't deny the familiarity. In spite of it all, she found herself with a sense of peace stronger than any she'd felt since he'd left the first time.

Without warning, he lifted her into his arms and shot from the lamp post's circle of light.

* * *

**A/N: **Hiiyaa :D!

Good gracious it's cold here 0m0. It was negative forty-one this morning. Forty-one below D8! I mean, what IS that? I'm sure everyone in the arctic is like, "suck it up", but I don't know how they do it up there! If any of you live in the Arctic, I salute you XD.

Ahh… I know this one's short, but I've got much expanding to do on Amy's little kidnapping :D. I'm trying my hardest to steer clear of the zombie-movie stereotype. Lots of originality to come. Yaay.

Ahh… can't really say too much now, I've got Science homework to do! … and math. And art. And geography, come to think of it. Shit.

Anywaay, R to the E to the VIEW!

--LA


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: **Hellohello! Oohh, ten chapters C:! Ten's such a momentous number :). I have no clue how much longer it's going to be. Ahh, 56 reviews… that averages out to about five or six per chapter. And you guys wonder why I'm failing math x). (p.s: I'm not actually :)). But yeahh, 5 is okay with me.

I'm not going to go too much into my deepest desire… but, between you and me, it's to one day have more reviews than I know what to do with. Sigh. What a nice day that'll be (:. They'll pile up in my inbox, THOUSANDS of them C:. And they'll all be wonderful reviews, too. Big and meaty and interesting. And somehow I'll find time to reply to all of them. Excuse me while I daydream.

Ahh, this one was easy to write for some reason. I often get stuck at one point (… usually the beginning…) and I just can't seem to write anything past that. Once I get started, I usually have no problem getting through, but I often have troubles with beginnings. Woe is me :). However! This one came pretty easily :). It's the week late because of exams x)… which were much easier than I'd expected.

So… everything's just great… nothing to report.

--LA

* * *

There were hands everywhere. Hostile; snatching, tearing, clawing. All around her, the shrub's fingers ripped. The earth beneath her just one giant palm, sandpaper rough like that of a carpenter, shredding her dress and matting her fur.

The smell and taste of moist soil was overwhelming, making the air so humid it was hard to breathe. Every sound came to her as Sonic's footfall, growing closer and closer.

Cream crawled through the bushes on her hands and knees, sometimes stumbling over her ears, everything in the world terrifying, magnified a thousand times. Her usual rose-coloured glasses had been shattered, leaving a grim world that she was unused to, and feared. She just wanted to be home, but felt sick to her stomach, too afraid to so much as peek from the temporary safety.

But Amy's face, still locked in the back of Cream's eyes, was haunting. She took a deep breath, trying to feel the adult resolve she thought she should, reminding herself that there were more important things she needed to do right now... now, while Sonic carried Amy further and further away. But somehow, she couldn't bring herself to do anything. Her fear was just another hand, pressing hard knuckles into her back.

She hated how readily she'd run earlier, without as much as a backward glance. She'd let her childishness get the best of her. It had been silly and cowardly. Not even a word of reassurance to Amy. It was so juvenile.

But she didn't feel like being an adult right now. She was always trying so hard to be one of the mature adults, with her etiquette and her smiles. But right now, she wanted someone... some brave, grown-up someone... to come save her.

* * *

Suddenly, a white flash of light illuminated the street for an instant, a brown pair of shocked eyes highlighted from within the bushes edging the sidewalk. Rouge landed on the road with considerably less grace than she might normally have, thanks to the rough way Shadow had furiously cast her away before she'd had the chance to recollect her bearings.

Completely through with the whole situation, Shadow didn't hesitate to shoot away down the road.

"Shadow!" Rouge called impatiently, her own face flushed red with anger and humiliation. But he was already well into his sullen departure.

The bat swore loudly as she leapt into the air, knowing she had no chance of catching the hedgehog if he really had his mind set on getting away. But her keen ears could still hear his steps, so she soared forward as quickly as her wings would take her, trying not to think about the last time she'd flown over a road like this late at night.

She caught a glance of the red blur which would be Shadow's shoes through the darkness, and urged her wings to push faster. The chase went on for several minutes, the bat only just managing to keep him within the range of at least one sense, be it sight or sound.

After a while, she was grateful to see, the hedgehog's pace seemed to slow some, and she found herself actually gaining ground, albeit very gradually. Apparently, he wasn't aware that she was still in pursuit, because she seriously doubted he wanted to be anywhere near her.

Her beating wings took her closer and closer, though she still had to strain to keep from falling away. He was several meters away... then a few feet. An arm's length. Grateful for her silent wingbeats, she extended one hand, stretching until she felt close enough to make her move. Calming her visage, she tapped him on the shoulder. She was irritated to see that he didn't even jump. In fact, he hardly seemed to notice that she was there.

She rolled her eyes in exasperation, letting her boots touch down and following on foot. He ignored her without relent. But she was just as stubbornly persistent, gently prodding him with one gloved finger.

"Shadow…" she cooed in the most playfully singsong voice she could muster through the breathlessness gripping her chest.

"Why," he demanded sharply over his shoulder without missing a step, "do you have such a death wish?"

Rouge clicked her tongue in exasperation.

"It wasn't _my _fault. How was I supposed to…" she trailed off, realizing that being defensive was not the way to play it. "And besides, you still owe me your half of our deal."

"You _idiot_." He snapped finally, halting and turning on his heel so suddenly that they were practically nose to nose. He took a couple of disgusted steps backwards. "I have no reason whatsoever to help you."

"_What?_" The bat said, affronted, puffing up like an offended peacock.

Shadow just shook his head coolly. Patience at a negative number, he shot away without another word, gone in a heartbeat.

Rouge called his name in frustration, knowing he'd never hear it. She sighed, looking up at the sky.

"_Men._" She muttered, crossing her arms.

"Miss Rouge…"

The bat almost jumped in spite of herself. She turned on one high heel to see a wide-eyed, filthy Cream standing a few feet away, looking hesitant, highlighted by the overhanging streetlight.

"Hey, sweetie," the bat said in surprise, "what're you doing way out here at this hour?"

Smiling sweetly, Rouge folded forward, placing her hands on her thighs. Though the action was, of course, meant to be friendly, the gaping crevice down her chest staring Cream square in the face only left the bunny looking intimidated.

"I…" she squeaked, going pink in the face. Rouge felt a stab of sympathy, but wasn't really sure how to go about comforting an upset child. Years of marauding and backstabbing had, for the most part, dissolved most of her maternal instincts. She hastily searched for whatever long-forgotten, cobweb covered tidbit might be left. But luckily, before the bat had to make a choice of words, Cream pulled her hands from behind her back and the glint of something red snapped Rouge from her thoughts.

"The emerald! How'd you get it from Shadow?"

Cream quickly pushed the stone into the bat's hands, as if to say that she had done no such thing.

"He dropped it," she explained sheepishly, "back where you two landed." After a moment, she added, "So I followed you."

Rouge wasn't really listening, though. She gave an absent nod, smiling at the red emerald as she held it up to let it catch the light.

"Perfect."

* * *

Amy wanted to feel fear.

Rather, she didn't want to feel good. She knew she shouldn't. Where were her clammy hands? Why was her heart not pumping loud in her ears?

No, all she could feel was the wind on her face, her body pressed tight against his, bouncing with every quick step he took. Of course, in her defense, he really wasn't acting in any way that could justify fear. In fact, if she kept her eyes – and nose – closed, as she did, there would really be no way to tell that his flesh was rotting. She wondered where he was taking her, but wasn't curious enough to open her eyes and shatter the illusion.

She tried not to think about anything rational, because she knew that even the most remotely realistic notion would wake her up and remind her how bizarre and wrong all of this was. Throughout the entire trip, a hideously sensible voice persistently tried to worm its way into her mind.

_What are you doing? Struggle! Hammer his face in! Did you even _see_ his face? He's _feral. He's_ a monst-_

But before it had time to finish the scathing statement, Sonic stopped abruptly, and Amy opened her eyes just in time to feel herself being brashly tossed to the floor of what appeared to be the mouth of some sort of cave.

Ankle deep in some godforsaken liquid, she heard a series of harsh, primitive grunts and roars. Cringing with dislike for her surroundings, Amy tried to stand without having to put her hands on the ground. But before her legs could extend, she felt a hand on her shoulder, pushing her back into the slime.

Alright… so Sonic didn't want her standing up. That was okay.

Just then, she felt the pressure of another hand around her ankle. Her heart beat quickened. That was still okay… Sonic simply… had long arms.

And then, there was a third hand, wrapping grimy fingers around her opposite ankle.

Three hands.

Which meant there was more than one of them.

Which crossed a line.

The borderline fear she'd been nursing multiplied tenfold, and it triggered a reaction. She scrambled away from the hands, panic growing. Forgetting about the repulsive layer coating the ground, she kicked at whoever it was, and struggled back outside.

A few meager stars tried, poorly, to break through the sky's dusting of cloud, leaving the night next to black. The hedgehog sprung to her feet and ran, but found herself only plough straight into a stiff body.

Though it was hardly his name any more, she couldn't help but give a hopeful whimper of, "_Sonic?_"

Not Sonic. The entire force of its body flung into her and pressed her tight against a jagged rock, squeezing tightly. It was hardly a loving embrace, her constricted lungs mused. Struggling to inhale, her eyes adjusted enough to make out the face of the not-Sonic.

Her immediate thought was that it was some sort of Medusa creature, tangled snakes falling, dead, around its scowling face, but she quickly recognized that scowl.

'Knuckles,' she meant to sob, but no part of her body seemed to care to oblige, and the word came out as a choking wheeze. It was horrible to see him, even the hazy, twilight silhouette of him, like this.

The sharp boulder pressed angrily against her hip bone, probably the worst place it could have picked. She could hear the sound of her dress, and feel the pain of her skin, being torn.

She had no idea what he intended to do with her, but the rib-breaking constriction suggested it was nothing too kind.

White lights began to bubble before her eyes, joining the lonely stars.

There was a flash of movement, and then, just like that, he was gone. Hearing the sound of roars and fist-on-flesh, she took in a huge gulp of air, falling gracelessly to the grassy floor. She hardly intend to stay there. Oxygen deprived, she was physically exhausted, but she forced herself to crawl. She couldn't label it as any direction other than forward.

She felt the sharp sting of a plant's roots under her gloves and tried to locate it for some shelter. It seemed to be a low-lying bush or tree, but she couldn't care less what it was, so long as it gave her shelter.

There was quiet for a moment. In the fetal position, she let out a shaky sigh of relief. But before her lungs had emptied, she was grabbed by the ear and pulled violently from her haven.

It was Sonic this time. Pulling her up roughly, he bellowed in her face, looking furious. She clamped her eyes shut. By the time he had finished, his ears were pointed aggressively forward, and his quills had raised.

Amy's eyes quivered uncertainly open, her chest heaving with fear. But her pounding heart froze with surprised confusion when she saw the look on his face.

Though the anger hadn't yet left his visage, there was an undertone of softness, even apology. He then seemed to notice how his angry grip on her ear had disturbed the fur, leaving them haphazardous and tangled.

He blinked, looking thoughtful, then reached out a hand and stroked the hairs back into place. Amy hardly knew what to think of his bipolar actions any more. He stared for another moment, then turned his head away.

He'd put her in her place, you could say… but there _had_ been that look in his eyes…

Clearly, he was king of the morbid society.

And… how would the words taste?... she was queen.

* * *

**A/N: **Well! There you have it :). I'm sure I'm going to totally butcher it, but I'm going for a King Kong-esque angle as far as the SonAmy goes x). I'm not too fond of the end there… like, at all :P. But that's okaayy…

We've got a lovely, blissful week off right now ;w;! I have to say, I just adore this whole exams business :)! They were all so simple. OH, except for this one math question D8! I hated myself.

'Kay. If you don't like math, turn away. It was a quadratic equation over another quadratic equation, so 'X(squared)+aX+b=0', but I totally didn't recognize that :O! I don't even know why! I totally know how to do them and everything :P. It just didn't click that that was what it was. So I was looking at it as a fraction… and I'm like, you can't simplify that! So I just wrote, 'cannot be factored'. Then, I go home, and I'm like, "daddy, this can't be simplified, right?" and I write it down. Once I get to the second x, I'm like SHITE! IT'SAQUADRATIC.

But yeah, other than that, everything went very well :).

WELL! Bed times for me :).

Review. 'Cause it's good for you. … that rhymes C:.

Ciao!

--LA


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N:**…

Faill.

I'm sorry X). I notice nobody did end up sending me "omgwtfemma" pm's :P. I was actually kinda disappointed, I get lonely. I have no real-life friends.

I've got plenty to talk about this time, though :D. It's been an eventful three (…sorry…) weeks! KAY!

So, first, I have the most heartbreaking story you'll ever hear. OHMYGOSH! Okay. So, So You Think You Can Dance. They were coming to our town, Right?! Like, OHYAA! I was so excited in, like, December, when I first saw the commercial for it! So I was like, "MOM! SYTYCDISCOMING! WE HAVE TO GET TICKETS!" and she's like, "we can't right now because we're busy. There's lots of time." "OKAY!" next weekend, "MOM! SYTYCDISCOMING! WE HAVE TO GET THE TICKETS!" "not right now." A month later, "MOM! SYTYCDISCOMING! WE REALLY HAVE TO GET THE TICKETS!"

… and then it was too late. So I spent the last little while just badmouthing my mother to all my friends, doing that exact same skit thing and putting on this big mean voice for her x). BUT THEN, on… last Monday, the day before the show was going to be, she surprises me with the tickets! SO I'm like, "I'm sorry mommy, I take back the mean impressions I did of you." So yeah, everything was good, but then, the next day, this man who lives in our house (… he's a family friend, don't ask) is like, "oh, haven't you heard? It's cancelled."

D:!?

D:!

Cancelled. The stupid crew got stuck in Winnipeg because of freezing rain. MY HEART! It's so sad ):. I was so excited.

Ahh, here's another funny… anecdote… the poll on my profile. It says, "who'd win in an armwrestleing contest, Big or Chris (and "the table" is one of the options. CLEVER!)" So yeah. I've got fifteen votes for "… the table", which was the idea, and then one for Big, which makes sense because he really would win. I suppose. But no, I've got two votes for Chris.

… I don't _understand_ this x). Chris Thorndyke. Emm, if it was you who voted for him, don't feel bad or anything… I don't take anything seriously, so don't worry. Please don't be scared away. I STILL LOVE YOU.

…ahh, that's about it :).

SO,enjoy.

--LA

* * *

It was almost comical, the contrast between their two walks.

Rouge moved forward in her usual fluid grace, thighs working with the circular motion of a pair of piston engines. Following the cycle of her hips came the rest of her body, arms swinging in alternating unison. She was oblivious to the fact that each step she took sent Cream flying back and forth, throwing off the bunny's own childish skip.

On the other hand – literally - Cream would have been comfortable traveling without holding hands, and had honestly been surprised when Rouge extended a glamorous glove expectantly. On the other end of the link, the bat rather liked it. It was like having a lapdog. Though the dusky street was rather scarce of gentlemen to look good for, she imagined it would be quite fashionable to be attached by the wrist to well-behaved child. She figured that she could very much rock the hot-mom look.

Both wanted quite a bit to get off of the early-morning street, for slightly different reasons.

Rouge had decided there was no point in fearing Sonic and then basing her actions off of that – if he decided to dive out of nowhere, there was nothing she could do about it. Besides, based on what Cream had sobbed about Amy being carried away, he probably had a play-mate to tie him over for a little while. It was unfortunate, but undeniably beneficial.

But she now had Shadow's emerald, which she imagined he'd want back… a deduction of which she planned to take full advantage. As soon as she could drop the bunny off, she'd go home and strip from her corset and run a bubble bath, because the ultimate was going to come to her.

Cream found herself rather torn. She knew that Rouge was walking her home, but did nothing to object. In all honesty, even though she was weighed down by disappointment in her self – not to mention fear for Amy - she simply wanted to dig a fortress out of her bed covers and hide there for a few days, until the world stabilized itself.

The sun was a canary yellow semi-circle peeking over the hills in the distance, bleeding its colour through the Eastern sky like a splotch of poor-quality ink, and its very presence was somehow boundlessly reassuring. After all that had happened over the course of the night, it was honestly astonishing to see that it hadn't at least dyed itself some apocalyptic shade of crimson, let alone not disappeared completely.

Even being able to see everything around her helped to renew some of Cream's bravery, but she still felt a wave of relief when she saw her home, looking as welcoming and familiar as ever.

"Well!" Rouge declared brightly. Cream was actually beginning to thing that the bat was slightly eccentric… the bunny had to assume that Rouge didn't care _that_ much for her company, and her enthusiasm was rather unnerving. "Here we are, hmm?"

Clearly, Cream knew, this was a spot where she should say something politely conclusive to punctuate their walk; a 'thank you' or 'goodbye' or 'I appreciate you walking me home', but her mind drew a blank… her mother had never taught her just how to word 'thanks for plucking me out of a dark street in the middle of the night after an undead hedgehog abducted my best friend and nearly ate me' without coming off sounding strange.

But, luckily, Rouge didn't seem to care about the proper anatomy of a conversation, because, before the rabbit said a thing, she sung a little 'toodaloo', then made a quick departure.

Cream stood numbly once she'd gone, confused and feeling suddenly alone. She flexed the fingers on her left hand thoughtfully. Now free, they felt uncomfortable and itchy. She realized that she had liked the comfort of holding hands.

She blinked, then turned and ran the rest of the way to the house. The flowers in the garden ripple in the breeze, waving hello. As she reached for the door handle, Cheese's absence was unbearably loud. She felt her lips stretch into a quivering pout on their own accord, unable to pull them back together. She pulled the door open, feeling the cool metal of the handle through her gloves.

The inside of the house looked the same as it always had when she clambered inside, but it felt big and empty.

The familiar scent of baking was some comfort as it wafted over to her.

"Mother?" she sniffed, hopping into the kitchen, her heart aching, overwhelmed at being suddenly in such a glaringly safe place. There was no reply, though. "Are you there?"

She tiptoed into the room, yearning from the bottom of her heart for Vanilla to be there, sitting at the table with her hands folded, smiling serenely. But the place was empty, and suddenly felt just as terrible as the haunted street had.

She traced the entire house for any sign of her mother, until she ended up backtracking herself into the kitchen again.

Her chin quivered and her eyes glassed over.

"Mother," She called feebly again, dragging her feet over to the table and taking a deflated seat. Her teary eyes fell upon the table, where she noticed a square of soft pink paper seated neatly atop a plate of cookies.

'_Dearest Cream,' _it read in letters dripping of Vanilla's essence, _'I've gone out to fetch you. If I'm still out when you come home, don't worry. I'll be back soon. Love, mother'_

Cream traced the letters with her fingers. Through they were words of comfort, there showed a sense of urgency, in the sharply jabbed dots of the 'i''s; the way the 'l' in love was looped in such a rushed swirl.

Cream pursed her lips, trying to calm down. She was lonely.

* * *

That ball of dust taunted him, dancing out of reach. The couch was too heavy to push, but the chink between the carpet and the sofa's underside was too small for the vacuum cleaner's girth. Dust bunnies watched in amusement, giggling silently and shaking their fluffy tails as each frustrated exhale brushed over them.

From the darkness, a bright eye shone like a light bulb.

Tails stared down the nasty little things, crouched on his hands and knees. He sighed in frustration and pulled his legs back into his body, sending a frown towards the vacuum in disapproval.

He pushed himself to his feet, then plopped down onto the couch.

The room around him was excessively clean. It was all he'd had to do, and things had been painfully quiet. He didn't mind the quiet, but wanted at least someone to share it with. Company would have been nice, but it was much too early for anyone to come by, and he didn't care quite enough to leave the house on his own.

Every item in the entire house now had a spot… its own little niche, the fox had made sure, where it sat in quiet observation. As he'd mentioned to Cream, there had been little to do but organize.

Before, he would have been spending all this free time building… creating… but he'd been so uninspired. He'd stare blankly at his machines, only to see them reflect the same expression back, their big, mechanical faces burly and empty. His tools had also taken permanent residence on the workshop shelves. They might have collected a blanket of dust had it not been for the feather duster that tickled their bodies twice daily.

Tails blinked and looked around dully, half enjoying the lemony aroma left behind from the cleaning solution, but still feeling halved with the knowledge of the dust on the floor below.

The air was empty of any noise, though he yearned for a knock to sound and echo over the immaculate surfaces. He sighed loudly, just to fill the silence, watching his feet dangle from the couch.

Maybe it was time for a snack. Yes, that would pass some time.

Trying to forget about the dirt beneath the sofa, he hopped to the ground and dragged his tails into the kitchen. The white cupboards on the wall sat in line like well-formed soldiers, their doors tightly clicked in place.

The fox took one of the handles gingerly between his fingers and pulled the door open. What met his eyes was a virtual cornucopia of canned goodness. Creamed corn… chick peas… spinach… the hardest part was sure to be deciding which delicacy he should select.

He pushed the door back closed, but not even the hinges made a sound. It made him frown. Perhaps things had gotten a bit too clean.

The refrigerator was his next destination, but it proved itself to be just as fruitless, the pickle jar home to nothing but brine, and the carton of eggs empty but for one. That egg had potential, though. Tails undid the grainy brown card lid and pulled the solitary one from its unit.

If it had possessed eyes, theirs would have met, and they would have exchanged their respective wisdoms. The egg would have been fascinated with the wonders of rocket science, and Tails would listen politely as it described life from within a hollow semi-sphere.

But the egg didn't have eyes, and felt no pain as its shell was jaggedly halved and its flesh sizzled in the pan.

It had been alone, like him, and now it was lunch.

Once his hunger had been satisfied, the fox stared blankly at the dirty china plate before him.

Just then, as Tails stared thoughtfully into the disk's face, he heard the chime of the telephone's ring and his ears perked up eagerly. It was still his mind's first reflex to assume Sonic, but he shivered through the pang of sadness to jog over to the phone.

"Hello," he said, sounding sheepish despite his excitement.

"Tails?"

Cream. Her voice made him smile. He was too happy to hear it to notice the way it squeaked even more than usual.

"Hey, Cream!" He said cheerfully, squeezing the receiver. "How're you?"

The fox waited keenly, but there was silence from the other end. He cocked his head expectantly.

"Cream?" he said, "You there?"

His heart sunk when he heard the choke of her sob. He paused hesitantly.

"Are…" He was disappointed… he had hoped that she would be able to cheer him up again. "Are you okay?"

She sniffed, and it came out crackled through the system.

"I…" she sobbed, "I don't know."

For only a fraction of a second, Tails had an impulse to hand up the phone. He was already so low that he wasn't too sure he could bear to take on somebody else's grief as well. In fact, his spirit had only just started to re-inflate. But after that twelfth of a second had passed, his sense of great caring kicked in.

"What's the matter?" he asked softly. This conversation wasn't going as planned. She was supposed to ask that.

As far as the answer, she didn't seem to know where to begin, because she just burst out into an incomprehensible babble of sound. Tails turned his head from the receiver to let out a sigh, then dropped down onto a kitchen chair.

"Cream," he said gently, "Cream, it's okay. Just relax."

Through her wails, he made out an upset-sounding, "_relax?_". Then there was another few minutes of sobbing. After that, her words sounded slightly clearer.

"I'm sorry, Tails." she sniffed. There was another empty spot in the conversation, and the fox didn't know what do say.

"Don't be sorry." he whimpered. "Please, just… just stop crying."

"_Mother!_"

The volume attached to the word made Tails jump out of his chair.

"Cream?" he asked in surprise. "Are you okay?"

The receiver beeped in response; the rabbit had hung up the phone. Tails just shook his head in worry.

Perhaps it wasn't too early to take a walk over to visit Cream after all.

* * *

**A/N: **Echh. Sorry. … nothing happened in this chapter. It's empty x). I'm sorry. … Tails ate an egg? That's exciting. I mean, WHAT A PLOT TWIST! I'm sorry.

I missed Valentine's Day, didn't I? That's unfortunate. Happy belated Valentine's Day :D? I have a good Valentines Day story to tell. Okay. I don't have a boyfriend at the moment, so there was nothing serious or anything. I'm such a hopeless romantic, I need a proper MAN. HAH, anyways, here's a good story C:.

SO! I'm on the bus to school on Thursday, right? We had Friday off, so that was the last day of our week. The bus was pretty packed, so I just slid into a random seat away from my friends. So… I don't remember just how… I ended up saying something to this guy sitting behind me. This complete burnout sitting behind me. This burnout with glasses that make him look like Bubbles sitting behind me. So we end up meeting each other. Then, on the bus home from school, we have this great, life changing conversation:

Pothead: Hey.

Ems: Hey :)?

PH: wanna buy some drugs?

Ems: No, that's okay.

PH: Oh. Wanna buy some mushrooms?

Ems: … no.

PH: You broke my heart. Twice.

Ems: I'm sorry, I'm just a heart breaker.

PH: So you won't buy pot, and you won't buy mushrooms.

Ems: … no thank you.

PH: Will you be my valentine?

Ems: Yes. I'd be happy to be your valentine.

So that's how it went XD. And I kissed him on the head. All my friends on the bus were like, O--oWTF? Because I'm the pickiest girl you'll ever meet, as far as boys go. Emma's got a reputation of being hard-to-get.

Also, I've been to see Coraline :D. Twice! It's so good (:. You should go see it.

SO ANYWAYS! I've got some serious Chaucer to deal with. YaayEnglish. Everyone complains, but I like Canterbury Tails x).

Night :). Revieww.

--LA

P.S: sorry (:?


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: **I was so worried that the site wasn't going to be up in time for Tuesday. I mean, the one time I actually finish a chapter on time. But then I ended up failing anyways X). Well, Thursday night, Wednesday morning. Same diff.

I hate Wednesdays. I don't get home until like 9:00 at night because I have band after school (plus I have music last period, so it's honestly three hours of BARISAAXX) and then I have to go to soccer, and then badminton.

Soyeaahhh, read 'n review :).

--LA

* * *

Amy sat on her throne, cross-legged.

The boulder lifted her above the ground, so she could dangle her boots without worry of them getting wet, if she cared to. But she really didn't. The seat was comfortable enough even despite its harshly rough texture.

She felt a full set of five fingers press supplely into her shoulder.

"Hello," she said softly, keeping her eyes closed gently. It cast a pleasant chrysalis around her. That way, anything might've made up her surroundings. Who could say that she wasn't sitting back at home in her bed? Or in a field of roses?

Well, someone probably could. Anyone with a sensory system that consisted of scent or sound or taste or touch. The place, in its entirety, was too unpleasant to go into much detail, but it was sufficed to say that the ground and its rankness were sickening, and that the others in the cave made their presence very clear by screaming, roaring, and hitting each other with blunt objects. It was like sitting in a zoo exhibit, when one of the orangutans has taken a liking to you.

In fact, he'd designated that rock to be hers. Perhaps it was because he had observed the way she had lifted her feet high with every step, and the scowl of disgust on her face at the cave's choice of carpeting. But probably not. He wasn't exactly the observing type.

Either way, he'd scooped her up from behind, and set her down upon the stone. When, after being placed so roughly, she had almost fallen to a repulsive splash, he'd cast out an arm and caught her, replacing her in that same spot. So, she had decided, that was where he wanted her, and where she should stay.

The lighting was so dim that, even now at roughly midday, there was no way of telling just who was grabbing your shoulder until you had a second to gauge the level of murderousness. Knuckles fell somewhere between eight and ten, and Sonic generally hovered somewhere below four. And Cheese had no fingers.

And there was certainly some degree of tenderness in the way his fingers twisted themselves into a knit with the material of her dress. It pulled sharply on her fur, but she was in no position to correct his behaviors.

"Hello." She repeated with a little giggle as his hand leapt off and landed itself on her headband. He always seemed to like its texture; the plastic smoothness was exotic to one who lived in a home made of gravel.

From somewhere in the darkness, she heard footsteps slosh towards the cave entrance. Sonic's ears perked forward aggressively as his head snapped away from Amy. She frowned, suspecting that she knew what would come next.

As predicted, he shot over to the doorway. There he stood, growling and puffing himself up to full height with the spines on his neck threateningly erect.

Though Amy had to strain just to make out anything, Knuckles seemed to be mirroring the dominant form. In the hedgehog's opinion, his presentation was considerably more intimidating, if only because of his taller stature. But then she noticed Sonic's face.

Even to her, from several meters away, it was daunting, and she felt genuinely afraid of him for the first time in a while. Eyeridge lowered so deeply it was a wonder the green of his irises still managed to glare, he was warning the echidna to back off.

But Knuckles was stubborn, as he always had been. He just raised himself higher, baring his teeth. Amy had never before noticed those canines.

And then, just like that, it went from psychological warfare to a furious, horrifically violent battle between two equally frightening opponents.

Amy almost fell from her seat, too startled to even scream.

Notably, there was a definite lack of the blood which would have added to the scene's drama, but that was understandable considering their current state. Saying that they threw punches would be the wrong choice of words, considering nothing near that organized took place. In stead of anything recognizable, they primitively groped and tackled, and even seemed to be biting each other.

The pair fell to the ground, sending a splash of mystery liquid in Amy's direction. Something that felt grotesquely solid landed on her cheek that made her cringe even despite the present action.

Of course, the hedgehog had seen Sonic and Knuckles scuffle before. Usually, the latter wouldn't care to fight, and would treat the whole thing as a joke. But that was hardly the case now. In fact, she was admittedly shocked to see, he seemed to be dominating the fight.

At least he was on top, as he began beating his fists down on Knuckles' face. Apparently he'd figured out punching… or at least a prototype.

It was strange to see that she, what with everything going on, even had time to think. But, somehow, she found herself not all that concerned about the fight. It seemed natural somehow, like it was something that needed to be done.

The battle raged on for so long that Amy began to worry about them. Well, about Sonic at least. Somehow, Knuckles was a very hard person to worry about, even when he was having his face beaten in by an enraged alpha. But she knew that there was nothing to be done. Even if she wanted to, there was no way she could physically break them apart. At least not without her hammer.

However, sure enough, Sonic finally rose to his feet a few minutes later, albeit slightly shakily. After a few seconds of staring at his still opponent, he snapped his head to glance outside, then let out a roar of triumph, and jumped into the air.

He suddenly seemed to be so thrilled that he began to sprint around the cave, all the while screaming his victory.

It was this that actually gave Amy a start. She raised a hand to her mouth, watching him in horror. Before she had time to think, he was upon her, and knocked her off of the boulder. She let out a midair scream before sliding shoulder-first through the puddles.

Blinking frantically, she tried to lift herself from the ground, but, in her panic, her hands slipped and gave way each time she put any weight on them. Then, Sonic's feet blurred past, and she felt an arm wrap jerkily around her waist.

Her ribs wanted to snap as he shot out into the night air, still bellowing proudly. He was taking a victory lap, and each step left a trail of reeking adrenaline and testosterone.

Amy, tucked under his right elbow, let out a weak cry of distress, having trouble inhaling. He squeezed a little tighter: "be quiet."

She strained her eyes shut tightly, shielding them from the wind's harsh velocity and the sun's sudden sharpness. There was no fighting him.

After what must have been seven years of non-stop bouncing, she felt his steps begin to falter as his gate became a limp. Without any notice, she was dropped flat on her front. Blades of dead grass bit at her as she landed, annoyed at being disturbed.

But she wasn't concerned with herself. In one piece, she pushed herself to her scraped knees, peering around for Sonic.

Her heart fell when she saw him. Looking horrifyingly broken, he laid still on the sidewalk.

No. It couldn't happen again. She didn't care that he threw her about like a ragdoll. He could not leave her a second time.

She crawled over to him in desperation, ignoring her already ragged dress complain as it tore against the angry sidewalk.

"_Don't,_" she told him softly as she drew closer, finally able to see the state he was in. His lids fell halfway, and his skin was ripped, but wounds bloodless.

She pursed her quivering lips tightly and lifted him by the shoulders, shaking as best she could.

"Come on!" she urged, suddenly furious. "You can't!"

His head lolled to one side, looking threateningly close to snapping clear off. He needed help.

She needed help.

Blinking through angry tears, she strained to lift him, and then ran.

Nothing existed between point A and point B. There was just empty, white space.

Tails' house was closest. She hadn't had much time or will to orienteer, but something inside told her so.

She counted her steps to distract from burning arms.

Sonic's weight in her arms seemed to increase as she drew closer, but she pressed on.

The door was in front of her. She banged her fist so hard on the metal that it hurt.

A few years probably passed before she heard the welcome sound of squeaking hinges. Tails eyes, when they saw who stood on his welcome mat, didn't know how to react.

"Come in."

* * *

**A/N:** Tada. No time for chat.

It's time for school, and I'mma miss my busss…

emm, sorry it's so rushed… my writing's been feeling very blah latlely. Thanksa for reading :), review si vous plait!

--LA


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: **… 0-o…

BOO!… terrifying, right? Yeah, I just figured I'd leave for long enough to die of… emm… starvation… so that I could be one with my zombies. It's important for a writer to relate with her characters. And that justifies my failure. Totally.

x). Well, well, well. The sad thing is that I didn't even start writing this chapter until, like yesterday. Matter of Time is nearly-ish done… once it's over, I'll be able to concentrate all of my motherly love and affection to this guy.

Lately, I've been tiptoeing around my house with a bottle of sanitizer in my belt, (actually, I don't even own any belts… in the belt loops, I should say) afraid to touch anything. I'm a bit of a germaphobe, between you and me. My brother's been sick with a "really bad cough"/fever/not-wanting-to-leave-the-couch syndrome. I think he's definitely milking it, but I have to admit he really was sick. He had a temperature of like 104 for a while XD. But anyways, I just know I'm going to catch it because he's disgusting and unhygienic and never washes his hands. So I sanitize everything before I touch it, and I've officially barricaded him from the computer room so he doesn't infect the keyboard.

And yet, I'll get sick anyways. YOU JUST WAIT.

Oh, GOD, I can totally feel it in my throat ;m;. It's coming, guys.

--LA

* * *

Something in the room was broken, it was evident, and it scared her. Sometimes, she broke things herself. Never intentionally, of course, but there was no avoiding the odd instance where a china plate would meet a tiled floor, and the introduction would go awry. And she'd flinch away from undelivered punishment, strikes that never came. Her repetitive apologies were always warmly accepted, if not eventually brushed away because of their sheer quantity.

The reason she tended to react so strongly was that, she felt, once something was broken, it could never be fixed. At least not fully. And if it could be fixed, than it was never broken in the first place. Glue could help, and sticky tape, and time, but once something had been broken, it would never be the same, not ever. If she broke something, she killed it.

The kitchen was full of delicate objects with ripe potentials to be cracked and damaged and shattered, but none of those things held Cream's concern. No, her eyes had the capacity only to take in one single, enormously significant thing standing in the doorway.

"Mother," she repeated in soft, pleading desperation, forcing herself to believe that this time both terrified syllables would penetrate the empty, broken eyes. Cream squeezed the telephone receiver in her right hand, wishing for the potential comfort which had been on its way to be delivered through her fingers, so she could have courage enough to take even a single, timid step towards her own mother.

"_Mama,_" she whimpered, feeling her ears quiver against her back, "it's me."

"Cream." The name came out sounding laboured, but it was enough to cast a string and pull the bunny over, throwing her arms tightly around her mother's middle. She let her nose sink into soft material, inhaling a veil of dampness that hung over fabric softener and baked goods, comforting her beyond all reason. It cleansed her senses, letting her body relax more than it had in what felt like a very, very long time. she forced herself to peel away, tilting her head to peer upwards. She caught Vanilla in the middle of a heavy blink.

"Oh, Cream," she cooed joyfully, voice suddenly normal again. Cream felt her arms return the embrace as their eyes met lovingly, and she found herself too happy to remember her belief that broken things could never be fixed.

* * *

Silence loomed in the room, threatening to overtake oxygen. Their movements were slow and shaky, as they feared anything too sudden might rip a gaping chasm through the air that would swallow them. They couldn't breathe too deeply, or else the resulting vacuum would cause a vicious, catastrophic implosion.

"Tails,"

He was distantly grateful that she whispered. And yet even in what had to be her softest tone, he feared that the chiffon fabric around them was going to be hurt. Everything was suddenly so insecure again, so fragile and surreal.

He didn't acknowledge her speaking his name. Who knew, maybe she'd been gone long enough for him to justify forgetting it. His struggling mind couldn't cope with dealing with her at the moment, feeling that he had to believe for his own peace of mind that, should he stare for long enough with such teary yearning in his eyes, he could pass through the mind-over-matter barrier, and Sonic would wake up.

Half of him cursed itself for not leaving ten minutes earlier. He had been on his way out the door to visit Cream, when the loud, impatient metallic knocks had summoned him over. He was only just able to catch himself when he laid eyes upon filthy, frightened Amy, and the load she carried. All had that occurred to him to do was invite them in.

The hedgehog then collapsed to the ground almost instantly once her grimy boots felt the soft touch of carpeting, and the body in her arms rolled aside.

Tails had no idea what to believe when he first saw them both lying there, unconscious on his previously-clean floor. For about ten seconds, he couldn't move for a clinging sense of surreal limbo between the seemingly impossible moment at hand and his haunting memories disproving it. But Amy, the one who was solidly alive, got top priority… even if the dead one was Sonic.

And he'd known from the beginning that it was.

So, he'd knelt down to scoop her up, but she awoke upon his touch.

Now, she knelt next to him, seeming horrifically collected and knowledgeable in contrast to the way her quills bent rebelliously and the dry grime harshly caked her fur, a highlight on her headband intercepted by stripes of smeared dirt.

But he couldn't stand to look at her for too long, so there was very little else to describe. It was next to impossible to tear his eyes from Sonic, however it stung and shook him. He tried to avoid the question of how the hedgehog had picked up all these new scars and bloodless lacerations after being in a coffin for all that time.

_None of this should be happening. _

He had been there for everything. Sonic had died and been buried, which had been the hardest thing the fox had ever experienced. And everything had, with time, begun to heal over. But now, here he was, lying on his couch. It was a lie. This puzzle didn't fit together, which could only mean that one of its pieces didn't belong. And because he had a solid, much resented series memories proving all of his facts to be concrete, he had to assume that something had gone wrong in Amy's half of the equation.

"That's not funny," he squeaked shakily, letting his eyes flutter slightly, and then turning sharply to face her.

"Tails, what're you talking about?" she asked defensively, glancing impatiently towards Sonic's body. He found it terribly disturbing to see her regular irritability, as if should-be dead people appeared on their brothers' doorsteps all the time.

"Amy," the fox repeated with all the stern hurt he could muster through his own shallow belief in the theory, "that's not funny."

She looked shocked that he would imply such a thing, and the expression on her face was almost enough to make him go back and check his own math. But he was too distressed and unsure to afford any hesitance. He knew that the moment he took pause and thought about it, he'd be rudely reminded of how far-out, even offensive the accusation was.

"How did you get him?" Tails pressed, stubbornly clinging to his argument.

Amy looked away, finally understanding what he was getting at. "Tails, I didn't."

The cold of her hand sunk through to his skin as she placed it tenderly on his shoulder, but he shook it away.

"So, what?" he snapped, squeezing a set of tears out of the way as logic began to peck away at his anger, "he just got up on his own? Was he on his way over to visit me, and you met him and decided to come along?"

"Just let me explain," she pleaded softly.

Eyes sliding as far towards her as they could in their sockets without him actually turning his head, he could feel the will to argue beginning to wilt. This was Amy; the absolute last person... or, second last, to take Sonic's death as a joke. She deserved a chance to give her explanation, and he couldn't deny her it.

"Alright," he sighed, getting to his feet, "but can we go into the kitchen? I can't…"

The fox wasn't sure how to finish the sentence, but Amy nodded in sympathetic understanding, after glancing hesitantly towards the couch.

"Sure," she said, letting him lead the way. "Let's go."

Meekly stepping past, he noticed her pause for a few seconds, as if she was worried to leave Sonic alone. But she quickly turned away and caught up. As they filed into the kitchen, he couldn't help but cringe at the sound of her muddy boots marking his immaculate tiles.

"Would you like some egg?" he offered sheepishly, eyes on his shoes.

Amy shook her head and hoisted herself onto the counter, crossing her legs and dirtying its surface.

She was about to speak, he could see from the muscles in her jaw twitching in preparation, but he needed a moment - only a moment - to blink and tell himself that all of this was happening. Because if he didn't, there was no way he could even conceive digesting her words, and what their meaning might be. But she spoke before he'd steadied himself, words spelling out something he wouldn't have been able to brace for if he'd had a hundred years.

"Tails," she began, whisper tiptoeing uncertainly, "Sonic isn't dead."

* * *

There was an ant in his ear, he could feel it. Inside of his head, crawling and tickling, perhaps taking a nibble here and there. You might think that his quills, hanging like prison bar, would've kept it out, and yet here he was, on the verge of smashing his forehead against the stone wall.

His limbs ached and open bite marks stung, but he had found upon returning to consciousness that he liked the silence brought on by Sonic and Amy's absence. For the very first time, he had a chance to stand still and really listen. Then, the insect crept inside and made itself comfortable. He could no longer hear over its scritch-scratch

It told him to leave the cave. Not with words, but by planting a transparent, urging image before his eyes. He shook his head violently with a few sets of impatient grunts, but the picture refused to relent. It became more solid, even when he roared and squeezed his lids shut.

Finally, he let out a sulky growl and stalked over to the entrance. With each step, he discovered that the pest's infuriating scuttling calmed to a hum that was almost satisfying, so he jogged until a new image flashed and the irritating noises began again. He growled and froze, then tested taking one step forward. Just like that, the nice sounds started to return so he sprinted into the night again.

He thoughtlessly followed the visual trail, growing to genuinely enjoy the pleasant whisper produced each time he reached a landmark. It reached the point where he was scarcely aware of his own body; all he consisted of was those pictures guiding him to reward.

But, suddenly, he was whole again, eyes his own again. He peered around into blackness until his eyes were caught by a glow of green. He needed no picture to tell him this was where he should go.

And, as his feet brought him closer and closer, body highlighted ghostly chartreuse, the ant finally slid into approving docility.

* * *

**A/N: **goodLORD, I have ADD. It's impossible for me to just sit myself down and write XD. I'll literally sit there snapping my fingers in front of my face and pointing and the empty Word document. I'm a waste of oxygen.

Emm, Knuckles' little insect problem wasn't really an ant, just so you know XD. … but what _WAS _it…?

Also, am I the only one who was kinda disappointed (read as: had their naïve, optimistic hopes shattered and stomped on) about that "THE most requested" feature thing? No, I saw the update notification thing last weekend, and I was all "*HOTdiggidyDOG!* they're going to give us html on our profiles and end world hunger and add video reviews! YES!" So I was sitting at the edge of my seat waiting for Wednesday, and then they're all, "nvm, it's on Friday." And I'm like, "oh… that's disappointing… but OKAY!" So then, Friday comes, and I'm all, YEE, and I go check it out, and it's _crossovers_. And, alright, I can accept that, my feelings heal quickly, but is that _seriously _our most requested feature? I mean, what's with that, guys?

Gosh, we're on a FAIL site XD. I do _so_ love it, though (:.

Anyways, I'm seriously going to try my hardest to update the next chapter by this Tuesday... and if not, next Tuesday. Hold me to that, please! Sometimes I just need a little motivation. In fact, I'm going to go start it _RIGHT NOW! _

Wait, please review :).

Now ^^.

--LA


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: **PSSTheey :D. How are you guys?

Ahh, so, yet again, I've gone and failed as far as updates. I can't make any promises about the next chapter either, considering I've basically got the busiest May of life. This weekend, I've got a piano theory exam to write… which is totally no problem, because it's super easy. Then the next weekend's free – I'll try and get some stuff done then – and then I'm in Toronto on the 21st, and at this … thing on the next weekend.

Kay, so, this is suuper belated now, but it was my birthday on the 14th of April :). So now I'm ninety-four years young. Yeah, minus seventy-four. That's fifteen x). Which is great and all, had a nice little party… but as far as the writing thing, it just adds to this whole feeling of mediocrity. No, like, when I first started, I was thirteen, and everyone was all, "oh, wow, that's young, you're not too bad!" but now it just feels sorta… "that's how a fifteen-year-old should write. LAME." And I seriously don't think I've improved in the slightest since then. But, yeaahh, whatever!

Oh, and for my birthday (L)(L). Midnight Lullabye, because she's such a little wonder woman, wrote me the most delightful little story. I wish she lived next to me so I could throw a tin can with a string attached out my window and to hers and we could have secret conversations C:. One day, sweetie…

Anyway, yeah, enjoy!

--LA

* * *

His plans for the evening included murder.

Though not the absolute primal objective, he was very confident that it could be squeezed in. An angry, throbbing growl sounded mostly on its own accord as his feet, full to bursting with their own share of rage, carried him through the night.

Shadow almost cursed himself for making such a sudden departure earlier, and then for not noticing the absence of the emerald until so much later, but he ultimately and lividly assigned every ounce of blame to Rouge and her childishness.

And even after settling into a moderately comfortable tree branch that night and then searching to close his fist around the emerald only to find it missing, he knew he couldn't stand to spend any more time that day with the bat. Besides, there was no point in running around during the middle of the day when you wore a black coat, what with so-called zombie Sonics running amok on the streets.

A scorched set of tracks streaked the turf beneath him as he passed over a grassy field a few kilometers from town.

The wind blew coolly, harshly, bitter about the fact that it couldn't catch him as he ran, and sent shivers through each blade grass.

Though the moon's presence was rather sickly by the time it reached the earth, choked by a wispy layer of clouds bordering its flanks and protruding careless tendrils over its narrow silver face, Shadow could make out Angel Island's splotch in the sky.

As he passed beneath it, through the patchy grass that was deprived of enough sunlight to reach full growth, he picked up on a minute oddity in the Master Emerald's energy, a sense that he could describe only as a sort of juvenility. But then again, everything was slightly out of whack without the gem that usually resided with him at all times. However, he had no interest in whatever Knuckles was up to, and sped away until the aura had been left behind.

Rouge's building peaked, irritatingly conspicuous in the way the emerald concealed inside rang subtly in his head.

If the universe cared to give him even a single moment's justice, which it very seldom did, he'd find the emerald sitting on a coffee table, unharmed and unattached to any sort of ring, to be taken back with no hitches and no exchange of words, leaving his eyes clean of her. But, then again, there wouldn't really be any need for talk. It was a simple matter of find emerald, take emerald, leave, and never come back. At this point, he couldn't care less if anyone's arm needed to be broken for his point to get across.

He ascended the staircase, trying to squish each step as he proceeded. The bat's door appeared, radiating with energy and annoyance and "come knock me down".

Without a care to its squeak, he turned the handle. However, as he stepped through the doorway and felt a sheet of musky perfume cling around his body, no devious voice greeted him. Shadow's steps sounded no more than their usual silence, and yet he knew she'd undoubtedly hear them over anything were she residing anywhere in the apartment.

The hedgehog headed steadily into the room's main center, pivoting past couches and tables, sometimes pausing to scowl at a no-doubt stolen treasure. He was disturbed to realize how well he knew the floor plan, and made a note to avoid the place for a while. Forever, if possible.

"Don't worry." Shadow closed his eyes, halting mid step. "Knocking went out of style months ago anyways."

After a second of mental preparation, he turned towards the voice's source, knowing it was inevitable. No surprise to him, her sultry call quavered through the thick air from the bedroom.

"Rouge," he growled, stalking over. Lying on her front, jaw line resting on her knuckles, she had chosen the bed, symbolically, for her perch. Shadow shot her a look so mutinous it was a wonder she didn't melt on impact. However, very much to the contrary, she let a smile glitter in the low light.

"It's nice to see you again," she trilled, leathery wings flexing and teasing behind her.

His face remained as cold and flat as a skating rink.

"Actually," she continued, too used to his attitude to be bothered, "I was a bit worried you'd be too upset to come back.

"_Upset_?" Shadow repeated in irritated mocking, lacing his arms and refusing to enter past the doorway. He then shook his head coolly. "Idiot. Did you honestly think you could get away with taking my emerald?"

"Well," she replied pleasantly, sickeningly, shifting her weight from one elbow to the other. Shadow heard something in her suit give an unholy, tightly rubbery squeak with the motion. "That's what you get for shooting off into the night without saying goodbye."

The hedgehog glared. "You're in no position to talk to me like that," he informed her, indifferent to the pout she then pulled. He and his immortality were looking flatly forward to seeing her in twenty-odd years, once gravity caught up with her, things began to lose their spring, and her spine warped from being so abused. Maybe then she would finally, finally, be physically capable of having a mature conversation that didn't conclude leaving something dirty seared into the back of his mind.

"How do you figure that?" she asked in some sort of irritating interest.

"Firstly," he growled, "you-"

"Oh, there's a whole list?"

"_Firstly_," he pressed darkly, "you and your damn obsession cost me the emerald at the house. You owe me for that."

The bat waved her hand dismissively before he moved to the next point.

"Secondly," Shadow said, "you stole _my_ emerald last night. That's two."

Rouge cocked her brow, smirking. In a fluid motion, she swept herself up and to bare feet. She sauntered over to him, only slowing her hips' cycle when they just brushed up against his, pressing her chest into his crossed arms in defiance to his resistance.

"So I owe you," she crooned, "two?"

Paying no attention to his sulkily averted eyes, she took another tiny step forwards, so that no more personal space existed between them.

Placing both hands on his chest, weaving them past his arms, and letting her fingers twist and knit themselves through white fur, she finally caught his eyes. "One."

The bat leaned close enough for him to make out every teal detail in her irises. "Two."

She felt Shadow's arms unfurl. But, instead of succumbing as she had planned, he shoved her roughly away.

"You're unbelievable," he growled.

"Oh," she snapped, immediately losing the passion in her eyes and crossing her arms with indignant impatience, "you're just hopeless."

Shadow frowned irritably, turning away to search for the emerald on his own.

"You're like a brick wall!" the bat exclaimed, turning a frustrated circle.

She had lost interest in his bland, flat mannerisms, letting him march out of the room. By this point simply wanted him gone, whether she need his help or not. And it wasn't as if she hadn't made put effort into convincing him. She'd put on her sexy face and her sexy walk. There simply hadn't been anything there.

* * *

_Knuckles_.

Grunt.

The ant had evolved, morphed. It injected words into his head, _speaking_… and though he had no knowledge of the language, the echidna understood.

_Knuckles_, it said again and again, _Knuckles_.

He was so close to the realization of what the word meant that he started to repeat it on his own, the voice gradually letting him go without its training wheels.

And, he found himself noticing, thoughts were occurring where only absent space had sat previously.

'_Knuckles,' _he thought. That made him blink. Maybe…

"Knuckles."

Before he could even realize what had slipped, like clockwork, from his own mouth, he felt a green-white flash of bright light shoot towards him from the emerald.

* * *

Next to zero progress had been made regarding Shadow's pursuit of the emerald.

"Where is it?" he demanded again, having resorted finally to simply asking the bat. She watched him in cruel amusement, lounging on the living room couch with her feet on the coffee table.

"I don't think so," she chuckled, clicking her toes together. "You're too fun to watch."

He shut his eyes in exasperation.

"Hey," Rouge continued, smirking, "how about we make a deal?"

"What exactly did you have in mind?"

* * *

Amy had given the same explanation so many times the words were beginning to sound identical, smearing and blending amongst each other. The same speech, again and again. She tried rearranging them in different combinations, but the same sets of words kept coming out. There was no other way for her to articulate it. And still, the same expression draped itself over Tails' expression, relentlessly pinning his lips into a miserable frown, and holding his lower lid half way up his pupils.

With each passing explanation, she hoped to finally see it drop to the floor, to see the familiar, "oh, that makes sense!" face that he wore the rest of the time. But his logical mind was having shocking difficulty trying to conceive anything beyond single digit addition.

There was a jaundice to his yellow as he shook his head again. "I don't…" he sniffed shakily, "understand."

Amy shut her eyes, able to appreciate his grief but beginning to feel her loyal impatience edge closer.

"Listen, Tails," she tried, kneading her thighs and trying to re-string the statement. "I don't really understand it either."

That bothered him, very apparently. If he didn't understand and she didn't understand, nobody understood, and there was no constant holding the situation together. And Amy was trying to explain without proper knowledge of the subject, making everything she said questionable.

He examined a pleat in his left glove, picking at it and irritating the hedgehog.

"_Tails,_" she pronounced with too much firm deliberation for him to ignore, "you have to listen to me."

He squeezed his eyes shut, then looked up with determination. "Alright," he whispered, tensing his cheeks. "Explain it to me. One more time."

She exhaled, then nodded.

"I was with cream," she recounted, still fairly insecure about the story. Tails' ears perked with concern when the rabbit's name was mentioned. "The other night. And… we were out, walking, on the street, looking for Cheese. And then, he was right there. Sonic."

She paused, suddenly overwhelmed by the memory recollection. She didn't know why this version struck her so vividly.

"And he…" how could it be worded? "just took me."

Tails allowed himself a moment to digest before he continued.

"Where?" he squeaked, "…did he take you?"

She shook her head.

"To a cave somewhere."

Tails had too many questions for one to be verbally formulated. Somehow, of all of them, the one that struck him as most pressing couldn't be held in, and made him feel sickly disloyal.

"Are we safe from him?"

* * *

**A/N: **there you have it. Very clearly, I pushed just a little bit to get it finished, so it's especially shitty today, but whatevs!

Ohh, also, I watched Sonic & the Dark Knight or Black Knight… you know. It looks like a really awful game, and I'm too lazy to rent it, but gosh did the cutscenes make me laugh.

As far as the next chapter, (WOW, fifteen :)!) it`ll probably take a little while, because Matter of Time chapter seven is my next priority, not to mention I`ve got a whole bunch of reviews that I want to write.

And, hey, isn`t that new PM system great? I think it`s so helpful… I`m always forgetting whether or not I`ve replied to things and stuff…

Anyways, thanks for reading, and reevviieewwplease :)!

--LA


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N: **Heyya guys :)!

Guess what? It's an on-time chapter C:! Fancy that!

So, I started coaching soccer this Monday XD. It's my little sister's team of JK's-gr.2s, and they're pretty amazing... it was raining both games, which was bitchy, but whatevs. It's late, and I'm feeling pretty inarticulate.

OHGUESSWHAT?!

Review.

:).

--LA

* * *

"You're cold."

"Is this really necessary?" he flatly demanded.

Rouge took a moment to observe his angry pacing. "Mmhmm. I think so."

He grunted.

"Yes," she continued with certainty, "definitely. You're getting colder, by the way." Not in the mood to hear such information, Shadow turned and glared with icy venom. "Yikes. _Very _cold."

Shutting his eyes in exasperation, he turned on his heel and stepped towards the other half of the room.

"Look, I told you you can have it," she reminded him. "You just have to find it first. Colder."

"You just said this was the right way," he growled, crossing his arms and turning towards her. The bat just shrugged. Shadow tried to read her face, but when the smirk came up blank, he tried taking a step backwards, towards the window wall.

"Warmer," she guided, smiling with sly encouragement. With that lead, he stalked four paces in the warm direction.

"You're getting colder again," she sang, wiggling her feet on the coffee table where they rested.

"How is that possible?" he demanded. In response, she simply mimed a zipper across her lips. He testily shuffled to his right, and then, when she shook her head, to his left. The bat then nodded pleasantly.

"Warmer."

Shadow could sense the emerald, tantalizingly close, and looked around before him.

Before he had time to do any searching, a flash of white-green light illuminated the land outside, making him flinch. After an instant, once it had subsided, he stared out to see Angel Island hanging from the stars, a bright glow coming from deep in its forest.

Rouge shoved him out of the way, leaning into the night with her eyes wide. "Knuckles," she muttered.

"Knuckles?" Shadow repeated in irritation, crossing his arms. "I thought you said he was _abducted _by Sonic."

"Obviously, I was wrong. By the way," the bat added before leaping out the window, face set suddenly with determination, "it was in the vase."

Marginally intrigued, but mostly relieved that the game had been concluded, Shadow thrust a hand into the crimson jar on the table to his right, closing his fist tightly around the emerald. When lifted into the island's light, it glittered just as always. He then followed after her. It wasn't that he was curious, he simply hoped something that relevant might be learned as a result.

Overhead, Rouge flew in a straight line towards the island. Even she, with no particular connection to the Master Emerald, felt the sudden surge of energy that waved from it, interrupting her flight pattern and making her drop a few feet in the air.

Her brow contracted in curiosity, and perhaps some concern, she set her feet down on the landmass' cool soil.

Not wondering whether Shadow had decided to come along or not, the bat jogged through the jungle, careful to keep absolutely silent, perhaps out of caution for Sonic. She felt a warm rush of almost pride; Knuckles hadn't needed her help in the first place. The entire Shadow affair could have been avoided.

She was going to be very happy to have her idiot echidna back to torment.

As she snuck between greenery, the shrine came into view. Seated on the ancient steps, head swivelling slowly about, was Knuckles. Behind him, the emerald glowed warmly.

The bat watched for a moment longer, then stepped towards him from behind a thick-trunked tree. The shrine's light cast a long, thin shadow behind her as she approached.

"Rouge," he said thickly, brow lowered heavily. He looked out of place and confused somehow.

"Thanks for all the help," the bat snapped, crossing her arms. She then turned back towards Knuckles. "Oh, well. At least you're not undead, hmm?"

The echidna pushed past her, looking serious.

"What're you..." but before Rouge could finish, he was gone into the tree line. "All males are hopeless," she sighed in exasperation, then followed.

* * *

Things were back to normal, finally and mercifully. Vanilla hummed pleasantly in the kitchen, her voice mixing with the sweet smell of baking of and drifting through the house.

The usual procession of stuffed animals was present at the get-together taking place in Cream's cozy room.

"That's fascinating," the bunny said brightly, placing a hand on Mrs. Pellington's arm. "I can't believe I missed so much. And you didn't even have Mr. Pellington to help because of his sprained wing."

Just like before everything, she chatted politely, taking odd sips of imaginary tea.

"What did I do?" She turned and looked at her toes. "I did a bad thing."

"Cream?" Vanilla called gently from the doorway. The bunny was repetitively hit with waves of realization as to how much she loved her mother. Every soft, soundless step sent a pound of affection through her nerves. And still, with each, warm sensation, she felt an even stronger surge of guilt. "How is your party going?" Vanilla asked sweetly, placing a plate of brownies on the pink plastic table.

"Very well," she replied, "thank you."

Cream bit her cheek.

"I'm so glad you're safe," Vanilla said softly, pulling her daughter in. Cream felt a pout stretch across her muzzle as she stood and wrapped her arms around her mother.

"Mother," the bunny began quietly, "was is bad that I didn't go back for Amy?"

Vanilla sighed, and dropped to her knees.

"Sweetheart," she began lovingly, stroking Cream's cheek. "I know you did everything you could for your friend."

"Mama," she squeaked, "I have to go after her."

* * *

Sharing the kitchen table as their bed, they slept out their distress.

A set of footsteps jerked the hedgehog into consciousness.

Amy's eyes were wide instantly. "Knuckles?" she whispered, hugging her arms and gaping at him. "How can you..."

"The Master Emerald," he explained simply.

"Knuckles?" Tails muttered, blinking awake. "Amy, didn't you say he was..."

"He was."

Rouge entered the room, then glanced around at the three of them.

"Now this looks like a party."

Nobody paid her any attention as she marched past, affronted, and flounced onto a kitchen chair. Instead, Amy stared at the echidna.

"How did you get away?" she asked,

"I felt it," he said shortly, shaking his head. "The Master Emerald brought me to the shrine."

Tails' eyes glossed over for a moment.

"You were dead too?" the fox asked quietly, eyes on his gloves.

"I wasn't dead," Knuckles replied, shaking his head. "But I can only remember pieces of it. It was like being only half there."

"So..." the fox pressed, "you could do the same for Sonic." Knuckles looked away. "_Right?_"

There was no reply.

"_Knuckles?_"

The echidna exhaled uncertainly. "Well, I suppose it's... possible."

Tails' ears perked and his eyes lit up more than anyone had seen them in weeks. "So let's go!"

"Listen, Tails," Knuckles said, closing his eyes. "We can't just-"

"Good luck catching him," Rouge interjected, crossing her arms, brows raised sceptical intrigue.

"Catching him?" Amy repeated in confusion. "What're you talking about?"

"Y'know," the bat replied sarcastically, "the whole super-zombie thing? Maybe you missed the memo."

"But Sonic's... just in the other room," Tails gestured, looking suddenly frightened.

"What're you talking about?" Knuckles demanded. "We came through that way and I know I didn't see Sonic anywhere."

Tails and Amy exchanged a glance, and then rushed from the kitchen. Knuckles followed in dark confusion, leaving the bat shaking her head, arms crossed.

"Don't worry," she called in annoyance. "It's not like I want to know what's going on anyways."

In the living room, everything was as it should be. A vase that once held flowers But the couch was empty.

"Where did he go?" Tails yelped, running over. He frantically searched the space, turning circles and dropping to his knees to peer under the couch. The same set of dust bunnies shrugged back at him. Breathing heavily, he hoisted himself up and onto the sofa.

"He must've run off," Amy breathed, slowly stepping over.

There was a pause. It pinned each mouth shut, nobody wanting to be the one to state the obvious.

Suddenly, Amy pushed past them. "I have to go," she whispered, eyes wide, then shot alone towards the front door.

"Amy!" Knuckles roared in frustration, running after her. "Get back here!"

* * *

**A/N: **Here we go! Ahh, I know this one's quite short, but I wrote the entire thing today and just wanted it uploaded and done with :).

So I feel like I should retract my statement about Sonic and the Dark Night :D. Apparently, it is good! Wicked-awesome-deadly. I should totally go rent it since everyone's been giving it so much praise.

Kay, tired. Review please C:!

--LA


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N: **...

_...I'm just gonna put on a very small voice and let you go ahead and read the chapter._

...oh,manXD.

--LA

* * *

She was chasing him again.

It made her anxious. It made her angry. It made her want him more than ever.

She tore past trees and undergrowth. The boughs were so unpredictable that she had to keep her eyes as close to shut as possible without walking into the trees' great trunks.

He had come this way. At least, she'd convinced herself to believe as much based on a staggered set of tracks and snapped branches that one less determined might have written off as inconsequential. In fact, the path guiding her was based almost solely on slight variations in the squinted, blotchy shadows which made up her entire field of closed-eyed vision.

Her fur was more mahogany than pink after hours of blindly tumbling through the forest's organic floor. It was roughly mid afternoon, give or take a few hours, but the heavily overhanging greenery combined with her sense-numbing panic didn't permit much of daytime's comfort to penetrate her.

Her lips were fused together from dryness, ossifying steadily. Every so often, she'd stumble and feel them tear apart as a little gasp pushed its way out, her knees catching on the hardwood floor of roots and organic debris. Nose buried in the litter layer, she'd lift herself back up without doing a damage check. Still, the earthy, muffled taste and smell of soil hugged every inhale for a hundred steps after, until she misplaced another foot to repeat the cycle.

The trail of snapped branches and crushed sponges of moss left in her wake was wide and haphazard with no evident direction. But what did it really matter if she got lost? Sonic was nearby, there was no doubt. The greatest head start he could have gained was... ten-odd hours. Certainly, if she called out for him, he'd show up. It was only out of avoidance that she kept her trek wordless. The others didn't understand. She knew they meant well, and that they thought they had her best interests in mind.

But they just didn't understand. She finally had this thing that she'd been wanting for so, so long.

To just give it all up? Out of the question.

She was sure that, finally, they'd be together, permanently and consensually. Sonic's unannounced departure meant nothing; he'd awoke in a strange place, confused and perhaps in pain. Who could blame him for leaving? She felt certain that once she found him, he would recall every ounce of their mutual affection, and promptly return them to that quaint little starter home, where they would stay and bask in their loving togetherness.

* * *

Where the lone Amy's procession had been loud, frantic, and careless, theirs was silent. Still marching through the outskirts of the forest, they were spared the density of fauna.

Leading their threesome, Knuckles kept his head low and stalked forward with a look of determined annoyance plastered to his face. It wouldn't have been surprising if he'd suffered some sort of haemorrhage brought on by severe mental stress, and his foot-dragging slump of a walk was simply a random firings of dead brain function. But he was still in there, simmering away in annoyance. Tails, who marched a few paces behind him, and Rouge whose ears were well adept for such things, could hear the low but steady growl coming through his gritted teeth.

"Knuckles," Tails prodded timidly. The echidna grunted and cast an obligatory glance over his shoulder. "Anything yet?"

Knuckles exhaled heavily. "Not since two minutes ago."

The fox's ears pinned back apologetically.

"Okay."

A ways back, Rouge followed the boys purely out of curiosity. Well, almost purely. Of course, after all the usually carefully rationed emotion she'd splurged on finding Knuckles in the first place, it seemed like an awful waste to not follow up.

They trailed behind the echidna's intuitive path, waiting for anything that might jog his memory into fessing up how to find Sonic and, by extension, Amy. But so far, they'd yet to pass any memorable rocks.

Tails had adopted a second wind since Knuckles' return; the prospect alone of getting Sonic back fuelled him with an incredible burst of enthusiasm.

Rouge mildly took note of this. She wasn't concerned, per se, but she had the feeling that none of this world turn out well for the fox. Put metaphorically, the deep gash that had been torn through his insides had been beginning, gradually, to heal over. But now that Sonic was no longer gone for good, the scab fell away. An open cut, no blood spilling... just flowing past the hole like magma. But to lose his brother again, that invisible plug of optimism would be shredded away with more force than the first time, and he'd have nothing stopping him from bleeding out.

But the fox was oblivious, caught up in his own blind excitement. Tails fought to keep his mouth closed and restrain from asking again for the latest update. He didn't bother paying so much as a thought to bracing for the possibility that they might not, in fact, be able to resurrect Sonic. Pursing his lips, he looked around in an attempt to get his mind off the hedgehog. But every green leaf that matched his eyes, every freely travelling breeze that rustled those leaves, left him only more thrilled, until he couldn't contain it.

"Knuckles…" he could see muscles in the echidna's back tighten, "anything?"

Smirking, Rouge plugged her ears.

"_NO!_"

The fox's head retracted like a turtle, and he clamped his mouth shut.

But now that Knuckles had unleashed his temper, it wasn't about to be cooled without a fight. Without all that much to be legitimately angry about, he made an acute turn to face Rouge.

"What're you doing here in the first place?"

She dropped her fingers from her ears and winked.

"Pardon me? I didn't quite catch that."

He glared back. "You're hilarious."

Rouge's smile glittered as she shut her eyes in amusement. "I could teach you some time."

After a second, she lifted her lids to see a very straight face, who wanted a very straight answer.

"Alright, alright." She snapped, rolling her eyes. "You're so _stubborn_. I'm here because I'm concerned about Sonic and Amy."

Even Tails emerged from thought to raise his eyeridge sceptically.

"Either answer me," Knuckles demanded, "or get lost."

Rouge laughed. "Fine." She swaggered past them, nudging the echidna with her hip as she passed, and continued the forward march. "I thought I'd join you," she spoke over her shoulder, "because the existence of a zombie army would directly affect my plans for this week."

Knuckles glared at her for another moment before turning forward again, then pushing past her to regain his position as line leader. But he hadn't exhausted the rant just yet.

"What was Amy _thinking_?" he demanded of the air in front of him, kicking a stray stone so that it left a dent in nearby tree.

"She wasn't thinking," Tails replied quietly, eyes fixed and thoughtful on the forest floor. "Amy's been living with Sonic. She feels like…"

"It's not like that," the echidna growled. "I can't remember any of it clearly, but it was like... all you knew was instinct. There was no thinking. Right now, Sonic doesn't care about anything but survival."

"So…" the fox digested slowly, "Sonic's sorta like... a Yahoo?"

There was an awkward, silent moment, the others staring at him like he'd grown another tail.

"Y'know," he peeped, looking up at them both, "Gulliver's... Travels?"

Realizing his reference wasn't going to get anyone anywhere, the fox sighed and dropped back into private thought.

Rouge just shook her head.

* * *

She could feel a very loud curse beginning to simmer towards her mouth, but she bit her lip to hold it in.

No loud noises, she told herself firmly, or they'll find you and take you home.

Feeling out of breath and out of steam, she decided to take a break, and slumped to the ground with no evident grace. Opening her eyes - no longer at risk of impalement – the hedgehog found herself surrounded by thick forest, the afternoon sun barely penetrating the heavy canopy of deciduous giants. They'd been there forever. Lying next to them felt almost like resting her head on a grandmother's lap. It was a surreally comforting thought. She decided there was no rush to leave.

She turned on her side, and felt herself smile. Sonic would wait for her.

Taking a steadying breath and absorbing the earth's calm, she put up no fight as her eyelids crept shut.

* * *

They didn't know it, but they were following Amy's path. Knuckles still led, but his demeanour had plunged from grumpy (don't bother me or I'll glare at you), which was intimidating enough on its own, to deadly (don't bother me or I'll rip your face off).

Tails, on the other hand, must have forgotten a slice or two of his mind back at home, because despite the dangerous tone of all Knuckles' previous responses, he hovered behind the echidna, preparing his next question.

He opened and closed his mouth a few times, gulping.

"...Knuckles?" he said in a stage whisper, a less-brave piece of him hoping the echidna wouldn't hear.

Knuckles gave him a half-nod over his shoulder. It was more like a mild neck spasm than any invitation to continue.

Tails decided it was as close to acknowledgement as he was going to get, so he dropped his question.

"Did you ever wonder," he inquired, hoping that this one might actually snag Knuckles' interest, "what did this to Sonic in the first place?"

"What difference would that make?" the echidna replied, disparage ruthless. Tails just sighed. By this point, the sharpness had already sliced just about as deep as it could.

"I don't know about you," he continued thoughtfully, "but this seems like something Eggman might think up."

"Wouldn't surprise me. But that's not going to help us find them."

Tails frowned. "I guess not."

His curiosity far from pacified, the fox crossed his arms and dropped back.

Knuckles shook his head. He understood why Tails was excited. Even the echidna himself was all for rescuing Sonic, but did all that excitement really need to be projected directly into his ear? He just wasn't a social being, unless the company consisted of non-vocal, green geological forms.

He had no complaints about the task itself. The recovery of Sonic would only improve things for him; no need to ever step in as hero or get shoved into the spotlight. Nevertheless, a solo mission was guaranteed to be inestimably more fruitful than one with a hopelessly chatty fox and just plain hopeless bat in tow.

In fact, to get rid of even Rouge would result in a significant drop in blood pressure.

A light bulb went off.

"Tails…" he began slowly. The fox appeared at his side instantly.

"Yeah?"

"Maybe you're right." He cast his bait carefully. "I thought about it, and I think we should definitely investigate."

It was times like this when Tails' age tended to become apparent. There was a wash of suspended disbelief which followed him and his calculations, and which let intimidated rocket scientists. Despite his meek disposition, he still demanded some degree of respect if only because his intellect was such a wonder. His eight years of life congealed with all three hundred of his IQ points, and the median left him seeming well beyond his years in wisdom and maturity. But only someone as naïve and innocent as an eight-year-old could possibly receive Knuckles' blatant lie with a wide-eyed, eager nod.

"Exactly!" he exclaimed enthusiastically.

"But…" the echidna continued, brow furrowing so ridiculously low it was like he wanted to touch it to his nose, "how're we going to find Eggman? Nobody's heard a word from him in weeks."

Behind them, Rouge shut her eyes in exasperation.

"Oh," she huffed, "give me a break."

Suddenly Tails, whose face had been frozen in a concentrated, determined pose of deep thought, bolted around to stare at the bat.

"Rouge!" he exclaimed triumphantly, pointing vivaciously at her. Knuckles smiled for a moment before turning, a perplexed expression carefully pulled.

"Rouge?" he repeated. "But how could she…?"

"Who else would know where to find Eggman!" You'd think he'd discovered a new planet. "And who else could get him to confess!"

"Wow," Knuckles said in dawning realization, "what a great idea."

The bat stared sceptically at him, cocking her hip.

"You honestly couldn't do any better than that?"

"Please, Rouge!" Tails begged, grabbing her forearm and practically hanging from it. "It's so important."

She shook him off and cast Knuckles a sharp glance.

"Tails," she gasped suddenly, "I think I just heard Sonic!"

He jumped up. "What! Where?"

"Over there!" She extended her index finger dramatically. The fox's tails swivelled into action and he disappeared through the greenery. After watching him zoom off, honestly surprised it'd worked, she turned to Knuckles.

"Wow, Knuxie," she scoffed, "that was real convincing."

He glared, but then closed his eyes and tried to calm down. Reasoning was always worth a shot. It had never worked for him before, but it _was_ worth a shot.

"Look," he grumbled, "I don't care if you go off and look for them on your own. You'd probably have better luck, since I can't remember what I'm supposed to be looking for in the first place. I don't care if you go home and… polish your boots," the bat raised her brow, "… or however you spend your time. But just do me a favour, and go away."

Rouge's smile glittered for a moment. She didn't really mind going, but making Knuckles beg was excellent amusement.

"Don't you know me at all?" she chuckled, "I don't do favours."

He exhaled. Why even bother trying to talk to her?

"But..." the bat trailed on, "if you have something you were willing to part with?"

Knuckles crossed his arms.

"What do I have that you'd want?"

Before she could answer, he raised himself angrily.

"And you're not getting anywhere near the Master Emerald."

"Oh, don't worry," she laughed assuredly, "I know you two have some catching up to do."

Readying to launch his retort, Knuckles gave a start as Tails appeared at their side once again.

"I think he must've just got away," the fox panted.

"Oh," Rouge cooed sympathetically. Of course, her lips said "oh", but the quick smirk in Knuckles' direction read very clearly "let a pro show you how to manipulate children".

The echidna met the challenge with a glare and raised his voice over her croon.

"Man, Tails," he consoled in a loud voice, "that's too bad."

"Mmhmm," the fox shrugged distractedly. His vigour had hardly been extinguished by the disappointment, as Rouge had hoped. "But we'll find him soon. Anyways," he recommenced, turning to the bat. "Will you go to Eggman for us?"

She really didn't care for such direct questions. There weren't too many more avoidance techniques that she could be bothered to use, although Tails would probably fall for that Sonic stunt again.

"As a matter of fact," she replied conversationally, "Knuckles and I were just talking about that. Isn't that right, Knuxie?"

He grunted.

"And?" Tails persisted, stretching on his toes to be at eye-level with the others. "Will you?"

Rouge gave him a long, pensive smile, and then shut her eyes.

"Fine. We wouldn't want Red to blow a gasket, after all."

She leapt into the air, waved goodbye with a wiggle of her baby finger, and before either could say another word, shot upwards through the canopy.

* * *

At once, it was a terrible relief, and an even stronger worry.

He was unmoving, but that was no concern to her. No need to breathe, no need for chests to rise or fall; inhalation was strictly for purposes of vocalization. The first couple of times she saw him asleep (fully asleep, not the "my eyes are closed, but I'm still listening to see what you do when my eyes are closed" state that he entered more often, which was distinguishable by a twitch in his ear or a subconscious growl when someone came too close) she actually feared he'd died. Or, at least, more so. That had been a constant worry, that his body might remind itself of the laws of nature and shut back down.

But that had never happened, and he awoke every time.

No, the thing that worried her was his fist. Because tightly squeezed between his fingers was a tattered scrap of dirty orange material.

Of course, it could just as easily have belonged to any crossing guard, unimportant, or to the unfortunate man in the Central City tiger's mascot suit. But her instincts told her otherwise.

Bolting upright, she scooted away fearfully to get full view of him.

He looked no worse for wear than usual, but it would probably be hard to tell any new injuries from the original set. Still, he seemed to be resting easy.

Resting easy, with that delicate orange fabric clenched so harshly in one dirty hand.

The last time she'd seen Cream felt like such a long time ago.

For a conflicted second, she hated him. If anything had happened... Amy knew she could never look at him the same again.

Sonic stirred, letting out a low, gravelly rumble. Scratching his ear nonchalantly, he gave his head a good shake and lifted his torso from the ground, blinking dimly and glancing around until his eyes focused on her.

In her mind, she heard his voice. "I told you I'd come back for you, Amy."

The ambivalence left her on impact.

* * *

**A/N: **...

umm... like I said before, my tail is about as far between my legs as physically possible without touching my nose.

I'm so SORRY XD. I honestly beat myself up every singly night before I got to bed. "WHAT THE HELL!? Remember those three hours you spent watching Arthur today?! YOU SHOULD'VE WRITTEN THE CHAPTER!! EVERYBODY HATES YOU!" Just like that, but with lots more swears.

I mean... this chapter's kinda long, if that's any consolation..? It's not? okay. Does it help to know that my brother went and got all swined up, and I'm most likely gonna catch it because eleven-year-old boys very rarely wash their hands? fml a little bit. Oh well. Personally, I don't think the whole swine thing is such a huge deal... but watch me die just for saying that.

There was so much bush tracking in this chapter. If the story wasn't so ... _scoff ..._ serious, you would've seen about twelve John Locke cameos. "Sonic went this way, Amy." "How do you know, rugged mystery man?!" "I know because the island's telling me so."

Speaking of Lockester, who's all excited for LOSTTseasonSIXX?! I am :)!

OKAYTHOUGH :)! I am here now, and I'm back into my groove! Flex your reviewing muscles, because you and me have some catching up to dooo :D.

Right! thanks for reading. SEE YOU SOONN!

--LA


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N: **I have not updated in... umm... five months. Wow. Well. Hmm.

In case you guys've forgotten my gimp plot, I'll do a recap.

_Previously, on Lost_... I mean... _Stone Cold_...

_Sonic dies._ _Everyone is sad. Tails is a mess and Cream kisses him to make him feel better. Un-dead Sonic digs out of his grave. Oh no! Rougie is bored because Eggman's gone to take his victory lap. She hits up Knuckles, but gets attacked by Sonic on the way there. She gets away and flies to Angel Island. Rouge and Knuckles have hot sex. _Wait, never mind. _Rouge and Knuckles bicker. They get ambushed by Sonic, who steals poor Knuckles and turns him into a zombiechidna. Rouge flips shit and goes back to her apartment. She is out of character for a little bit, then meets Shadow as she's getting out of the elevator. He needs her help to get a Chaos Emerald, so they go to steal it from some mansion with lots of lasers. Meanwhile, Cream is happy. She decides to go visit Amy. That night, Amy's woken up by Cream knocking at the door, claiming that Sonic attacked them and stole Cheese. They both cry and it's pitiful. The girls go out to search for Cheese, but Sonic kidnaps Amy and books it away. Cream freaks out. Now, back to Shadow and Rouge, Rouge screws up their mission by trying to steal a big gem. OH NO, it's a trap. Oh, Rouge. Shadow Chaos Controls them to some random street (he had another emerald all along), then runs away. Rouge follows him, but he bitches at her so she gives up. Then Cream appears holding Shadow's Chaos Emerald, and Rouge knows she's got some nice leverage. Meanwhile, Sonic's taken Ames to some nasty cave where he's living with Knux and Cheese. Sonic is the alpha male. Knuckles is jealous. Amy is delusional. Rouge walks Cream home then flies off to wait for Shadow to come get his emerald. Cream finds a not saying her mom's gone out to find her. She cries some more then calls Tails, who's still depressed, but hangs up because her mom comes in. Sonic and Knuckles get in a fight. Sonic wins, freaks out, grabs Amy, and runs outside like a crazy person. But then he passes out and Amy freaks out. She takes him to Tails' house. Meanwhile, Cream's happy to see Vanilla, but her mom's acting kinda weeird, and she's looking scruffy. What could this mean?! The Master Emerald brings Knux back, then changes him to normal. Rouge sees the green flash from her apartment, where she's been harassing Shadow, and flies over. Cream feels guilty for leaving Amy, and says, "I have to go after her." Knuckles goes to Tails', followed by Rouge, where Tails and Amy are sleeping on the kitchen table. Sonic is gone. Amy freaks out and runs after him. Knuckles, Tails, and Rouge follow, but they can't find her. Tails is skipper again, and convinces Rouge to go talk to Eggman about all the crazy stuff that's gone down. Amy's running through the woods. She goes to sleep by a tree, and wakes up to see Sonic beside her. He's holding a scrap of material that looks like it came from Cream's dress. Amy freaks out but Sonic's too dreamy to stay freaked out. Amy's happy._

_And that's what you missed on GLE-! _SHIT. _STONE COLD!_

ENJOY.

--LA

* * *

It was just the same as always. The cave itself was quieter, more peaceful, but Sonic himself was as wonderful as ever. Not only did he seem to have recovered fully from his injuries, he had also returned to his regular, affectionate ways.

He did, however, seem aware of Knuckles' absence. For the first hour or two after their return, Amy observed as she settled back into her rock throne that he couldn't sit still, and kept his ears erect as if to hear someone creeping up from behind to challenge his authority. But because Cheese seemed to be either content with his niche in the hierarchy or smart enough to realize he took up a square foot in volume, there was nobody trying to challenge Sonic's status.

But Amy thought he still seemed restless. The anxious pacing had been abandoned, but his posture was tense and his touch edgier than usual as he fondled one of her quills, growling faintly.

"It's okay," she whispered soothingly, reaching to gently pry his fingers away. As soon she tugged them free, they leapt like monkeys to clasp hers. Moving their hands into her lap, she tried to catch his eye. "Hey?"

He looked up for a moment, staring at her. So endearingly, Sonic pulled his hands away, and then cupped her cheeks.

Life now was ascetic, but she was willing to part with every sacrifice.

"Oh, Sonic," she sighed, relaxing her neck and feeling him support her. Amy yearned for him to say her name back. That was one thing she missed terribly: his voice. It frequently occurred to her that his last words were still his last words.

She remembered them so vividly, they practically still resounded in her ears. Perhaps, that was an understatement. Amy had listened to them every night. Their irony made her feel poetic now.

* * *

They infiltrated Eggman's base. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy. The troupe made it to the core of the menacing structure, only to find the doors slam shut around them. Violent robots began to drop from the ceiling.

"Look out!" Knuckles called, lifting his attacker into the air and chucking it at one about to pummel Tails. Amy ignored him, aiming her hammer at a robot's chest. Sonic, meanwhile, zigzagged throughout the mob, dismantling as he went. Occasionally, the others caught a glimpse of him streaking by, but for the most part were caught up in their own fights.

But then, quite suddenly, the room was bathed in a dull, red light. Every one of the hostile robots froze. A silver circuit box ejected from their chests, and they fell in unison to the metal floor with a deafening clang. When the red light disappeared, the mobians, all heaving, looked around at one another, perturbed.

"What..." Tails panted, lighting. "What happened?"

Knuckles shook his head and frowned, tapping one of the fallen mechs with the tip of his shoe.

"Beats me," he replied. "But I'm not complaining."

Sonic appeared beside them, tossing and catching a robot's dismembered fist.

"Hey, guys. How was _that_ for a workout?" he asked, grinning at the others.

Amy wiped the sweat from her forehead, leaning on her hammer for support. She was too out of breath to answer him, as much as she wanted him to realize how well she'd handled herself in combat.

Without warning, a huge screen appeared on the steel wall. Eggman's face appeared, straight and cold.

"Sonic," he growled curtly, "I'd like to have a word with you. Alone."

The hedgehog shook his head, chucking.

"We've been over this, doc." He smirked. "You'd look awful blonde."

Robotnik scowled, then stopped the feed. Beneath the blank screen, a door slid open to reveal a long, steel hallway. Sonic crossed his arms.

"Alright then," he said, starting forward. "Let's talk."

"Sonic," Tails muttered, brow contracted with worry, "are you sure this is such a good idea?"

"Guys," he laughed with a dismissive wave, "what's the worst he could do?"

Tails raised a finger opened his mouth to bring up the werehog fiasco, but he was cut off.

"Besides," Sonic interrupted, smiling, "this is me we're talking about."

The three others all breathed a little. Air tasted better through a smiling mouth. It was to be the last taste of that they'd have for a little while.

Sonic grinned at them, but Amy knew the wink was for her.

"See you soon," he called over his shoulder.

The moment he disappeared through the door, it slid shut behind him and the screen changed to show an aerial view of a circular room, Robotnik standing at its centre armed with nothing but his basic Egg Walker. Amy bit her cheek.

"It's gotta be a trap," she breathed, glancing at the others. Knuckles stared grimly at the monitor. Tails' eyes were wide, his hands in tight fists at his chest. Exhaling anxiously, the hedgehog looked back at the screen. Eggman turned his head towards the camera. With a wicked smile, he pulled something black from his feet. A gas mask.

"No..." Tails whispered.

The moment Sonic's form appeared in the round chamber, he stumbled to the ground, struggled for a moment, and then lay still.

Amy watched with terror and revulsion as the doctor took five clanking steps, then kicked the hedgehog's unconscious body with a huge, robotic foot.

"SONIC!" Amy screamed, horrified. Knuckles grabbed her arm to restrain her. Thrashing, she tore free. Raising her hammer, she threw all her weight into a strike against the steel wall where the door had disappeared. The shock hurt her chest.

By this point, Eggman had dismounted his walker and begun to beat, kick, stomp, Sonic himself.

Knuckles joined Amy in striking the door, while Tails frantically circled the walls and ceiling in search of some other way to reach the chamber.

After ten minutes, chest heaving, the doctor straightened his back, brushed his hands, climbed back into his machine, and disappeared from sight.

Tails hovered limply for a moment, then slipped to the ground. Knuckles, blinking heavily, caught him before his body hit the floor. Knuckles supported him, squeezing the fox's shoulder.

Amy continued to smash the cold metal until there was no strength left in her.

* * *

It was calming, coasting over warm beds of tropical air. The early morning's white sun heated the air pleasantly, and the calm water reflected her soaring body, crystalline.

However, despite her reluctant acceptance of Tails' mission, she really had no idea where the doctor was, besides the vague "celebratory world cruise". At least he was still on the planet anyway. Luckily, G.U.N owed her a favour about the size of a private jet. The small monitor strapped to her wrist hummed thoughtfully as its internal mechanisms conversed with the government satellite somewhere above her. It had given her these South Sea bearings, only to lose the signal the moment she flew within ten kilometres of the target.

The open ocean mapped flatly beneath her, rippling calmly in the early pink light. Rouge let a crest of air lead her roughly south. Frowning, she tapped the indecisive screen with a finger, then lifted her head to search herself. She opened her mouth, squeaked, and waited.

Her echolocation was a greatly underused skill because producing such high notes forced her to squish her face unattractively. But now, alone, she knew it would serve her drastically better than her real eyes, sharp as they were, ever could. In search of anything large, metal and/or egg-shaped, she listened for the return of her voice.

Suddenly, a bright wall materialized before her. Rouge inhaled, surprised, and dropped a few feet in the air. But when she righted herself, the image had dissolved along with her sound waves. The bat regained her altitude, then smirked. Sizing up the seemingly empty air, she flew forward.

After a brief rushing sensation, she found herself face to face with Dr. Eggman's huge, metal insignia. He'd been hiding between some sort of invisibility shield. Rouge scaled the ship's side, then peeked above the railing.

Sipping a from a martini glass, the doctor was lounging placidly on a conspicuous wicker recliner, wearing nothing but a pair of red swim trunks and some oversized sunglasses. His overwhelming belly, skin so copper it threatened to turn green at any second, rested freely. A robot fanned him with a palm leaf, dropping grapes into his mouth periodically. Rouge fluttered up onto the deck, unnoticed.

Eggman's cruise ship resembled everything else of his creation; cold, gray, and robotic. Therer was stark contrast between the dead metal and the pristine, pale ocean sunrise.

"Yoo-hoo," the bat sung, "doctor."

Robotnik turned his head sharply.

"Rouge?" he enquired with surprise, lifting the shades from his eyes to reveal his regular dark glasses, framed by two circles of white skin, "Is that you?"

She walked over to him, hands on her hips.

"It sure isn't Sonic."

He regarded her mildly for a moment, then chuckled lowly: "How're things on the mainland?"

"I get the feeling you already know the answer to that," Rouge replied, crossing her arms.

The doctor grinned devilishly, downing the last of his milky drink. "What on earth are you talking about?"

He handed the empty glass to the servant bot.

"And get our guest a seat," he added, waving the machine away.

Rouge rolled her eyes.

"How dumb do you think I am, Eggman?" she demanded airily.

Robotnik smirked.

"Alright, fair enough."

"What did you do to Sonic?" she pressed suspiciously.

"It's genius, really," he gloated, cracking his long toes. "When I killed the hedgehog, I injected him with a very unique, very contagious virus of my own creation. Are you aware of how a virus functions, Rouge?"

The bat raised her brows.

"I thought not. A virus," he explained gruffly, "injects its own genetic information into cells, hijacking their processes in order to produce new, identical viruses. Then, the cell ruptures, releasing hundreds of copies into the system. However, the body's immune system can usually eliminate the threat before it does serious damage."

"A dead body doesn't have much of an immune system."

The sun glinted in his glasses and he smiled wickedly. "Exactly."

The robot returned, dragging a second brown lounge chair. He dropped it parallel to the doctor's, then whirred away. Rouge frowned and sat on the edge of the seat.

"I don't understand how that would bring Sonic back to life."

"Dead is dead, Rouge. What I did... what my virus did, was transform each of his cells from the inside out. I replaced his body with genetically engineered tissue."

"Okay," the bat digested mildly. "So he's an un-dead, contagious, carbon copy of Sonic. I still don't understand what you get out of all this."

"Put quite simply, my dear," he explained, "if I can't defeat that insolent rodent, nobody can. He's a virtually unstoppable force, and his instincts will drive him to spread the virus. Of course," he added thoughtfully, "we can't have them infecting the entire population - I still need slaves to rule over - so I've given the virus an... expiration date, if you will."

"And what happens after that?"

"They die."

* * *

Cream had never felt so unsafe in her own home.

She had to force her entire body to clench simply to chasten the protective fortress from rattling and giving away her position. Outside of her shelter, all sound had died, but she was squeezing so much terror in her small fists that she couldn't even open her eyes to peek out. The screaming had ceased, and the banging and crashing. The sound of the door falling from its hinges had stopped its resonance, but the air was humming still.

Cream knew she couldn't stay under the table forever; all the food was on top of it. She felt it safe to say that Sonic was gone, taking his threat with him, but she dreaded what might be found in the outside world.

He had come without warning, roaring and smashing on the door. This made Vanilla blink and drop faintly to the chair. Cupping her forehead, she had commanded that Cream go into the bedroom, lock the door, and hide. But Cream couldn't move for fear, feeling her eyes began to fill with tears. When the door began to rattle, the bunny was shoved under the table just in time to see Sonic uncurl from the spindash.

Now, she huddled, shaking, waiting to hear her mother call softly.

Suddenly, a cold breeze flapped the tablecloth into her face. Letting out a scream of startled terror, she frantically writhed and kicked. Breathing choppily, she opened her eyes. There was blood all over everything. Slumped next to the stove was an unmoving form. Cream felt her lower lids squeeze, feeling ill.

"Mother?" she sobbed wordlessly, clambering over, letting out little yelps as shattered china stuck into her shins and palms. When she saw Vanilla's bloodstained face, she started to bawl, and threw her head down on her mother's chest.

For a long time, she laid there.

She felt a hand on her shoulder. The bunny froze, feeling terror and hope begin to reproduce sickeningly. She lifted her head. A pair of staring brown eyes met her gaze.

"Mother!" Cream cried, throwing her arms around Vanilla's neck. "You're alright."

Overwhelmed with sudden happiness, but frail from so much distress, the doe just clung to her mother, the light of her life, like an infant. Vanilla hugged back. She squeezed tighter, and tighter still, until Cream found it hard to breathe.

"Mother," she squeaked, trying to pull away, "you're hurting me."

Vanilla didn't answer. Instead, she raised an arm and struck her daughter across the face. Cream fell away in mute, wretched dismay, only to be jerked violently back by her hand. Vanilla growled deeply.

"Mother," the bunny sobbed, in shock, tugging gingerly at her arm. She didn't know how to go against Vanilla's wishes. In response, her mother lunged. Instinctively, reluctantly, Cream tore her hand free and scrambled out of the way.

Cream crawled away, stopping every heartbroken, devastated metre to look back over her shoulder. She knew her mother was gone. She knew she needed to get away. But there was a string connected to her mother embedded so deep in her heart, it pulled and tore and killed her to run away.

She heard voices, but was too panicked to listen. Then, without warning, she rammed directly into a pair of legs attached to a tall, menacing silhouette. She screamed at the top of her lungs, crying and covering her head with her arms.

"Cream!" Tails exclaimed in surprise, dropping to his knees. "Cream, it's okay. It's just me."

Breathing heavily, she lifted her head to see the fox smiling gently in the moonlight. After a quivering second, the doe threw herself into his chest, whimpering. Confused, Tails rubbed her back comfortingly. He exchanging a worried glance with Knuckles.

Suddenly, the sound of crunching leaves and branches made the boys snap their heads sharply towards the source of the noise. Vanilla stepped into sight.

"Vanilla?" Knuckles called, looking even more bemused. But as she drew nearer, showing the blank, emptiness of her brown eyes, he understood.

"Get back, you two," the echidna growled, running at her. Before she could react, he pounded her to the ground.

"STOP!" Cream shrieked in horror, squeezing Tails' hand tightly and hiding her eyes as the echidna struck her mother again and again. "PLEASE STOP!"

Tails just held her.

"It's gonna be okay," he choked.

* * *

**A/N: **OMG UPDATE. HAH. Oh, wow. I have no excuses to bother you with except that I am a really, really bad person.

I've missed you guys about this much. You can't see it, but I'm stretching my arms as far as they'll go right now. I'm thinking there's about two people left reading this story.. but whatever. I LOVE YOU GUYS STILL.

Uhh, lots of beating and kicking and awful things in this chapter. Between this and Abstraction, I'm thinking I need to go on some sort of pill. I swear, I'm not depressed or satanic or anything. Promise. ALRIGHT, next chapter soon.

OH, also, I've come out of my art shell, and I'm now being a bum on Deviantart. Lady--LA. Ladyamalphia was taken by some whoooore. Haa, oh well.

Kay. I'd talk more (you know I would) but I need to go to bed now. See you in not five months.

:).

--LA

POST SCRIPT!!: I am at 99 reviews. Who's gonna be lucky number one hunnnddrreeddd~??

(That was a polite way of saying review right now.)


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N: **DID you see what I did there?...lol, SNL? ...no?

Oh well. What I mean, of course, is did you see me actually update on time? HAH.

First of all, for any new readers joining me, the last chapter (17) has a really nice summary of everything that's happened so far, so you don't even need to read the rest of the story.

Kay cool. Read on!

-LA

(... I swear to god, if that "-LA" shows up having only one dash, I'm going to bring a gun to school tomorrow and kill my entire math class.)

* * *

Cream crouched alone on the starchy couch, hugging her knees tight to her chest and staring miserably at the blank wall.

Stewing in a feeling of overwhelming betrayal and crippling sadness, she really had no idea how to mourn. The death of her mother had yet to breach her full consciousness, and she didn't know how to digest the sickening pressure of loss. When Sonic had died, such a long time ago, her mother had said that death was a part of life, and that Sonic was gone, and that he would never come back, and to remember the happy times they'd had together, and that he wouldn't want her to be sad.

Sonic _did_ come back... but he was still gone. This left Cream with a warped and fractured perception of life and death, leaving them abstract and conditional. She didn't know how to feel. Was her mother dead? No... at least, not before Knuckles' attack... the bunny had felt her embrace for those beautiful seconds. Her mother wasn't dead. But was she gone? And if so, was 'gone' really forever?

The bunny let out a shaky heave. She wanted to cry some more but was too tired.

Tails watched Cream's pain apprehensively from the kitchen, kneading his fingers and biting his lip. He knew he should go and comfort her, go and explain Knuckles' actions with more sensitivity than the echidna himself could ever pull off. It was unfair to let her put him at fault. But Tails was afraid that she'd hate him too. He turned his head to see Knuckles at the window, staring sombrely at the pale sky.

The guardian was slouching in a kitchen chair, his legs spread and his forearms resting on their respective knees. He didn't feel guilty per se, because he understood the necessity of debilitating Vanilla before she could cause any more harm, but he certainly didn't feel gratified either. However, Knuckles had neither known nor lost a mother, and so he attempted to understand Cream's grief. He didn't blame her for being angry with him, because she was a child and couldn't be expected to understand the importance of what he had done, and he accepted her hatred because it was justified, replying to her uncharacteristically cool glares with as much compassion as he could muster.

Still, Knuckles couldn't help feeling frustrated at being stuck in Tails' kitchen, dangling his hands uselessly between his legs when they should have been out stopping this disaster before it got out of hand. However, he recognized that he was now responsible for keeping Tails and Cream safe. The problem was, the bunny refused to so much as look at the echidna without bawling. So expecting her to follow his instructions and, for example, let him finish off a rampaging Sonic seemed unlikely. Either way, they were going to get nowhere if she couldn't be budged from that couch.

The echidna squeezed his fists restlessly, then turned to Tails.

"Go talk to her," Knuckles mouthed, gesturing sharply into the other room.

Tails exhaled, glancing in worry back into the living room at Cream. He felt his brow contract minutely, but nodded.

Sliding quietly from his seat, he walked to her slowly, gauging her expression after each step. It was clear that she was trying to keep her face straight and unfeeling, but the fox could see her eyes begin to moisten as he approached. Very carefully, he lowered himself onto the couch beside her.

"Cream," he began so softly he barely heard the word himself, "I'm sorry."

She grimaced for a second, squeezing herself into a tighter ball, then inched her head frailly to face him. For a moment, she just stared, chocolate eyes letting all of her sadness and terror and ache show through, and Tails felt an urge to make her better. Cream stared for a few moments, needing the time to remember how she felt about him.

After a long time of looking into his welcoming blue eyes, she choked once, then threw her arms sideways around his neck.

"Tails," she whimpered into his collar, "I want my mother."

The fox, heartbroken for his friend, didn't know what to say. But Cream was silent, just clinging to him, fragile and insecure. He gulped.

"You remember," he quavered breathily, beginning with the first tangent that came to his head "when I thought Sonic was dead?" The cacophony of that last word made Cream squeeze her shoulders. "When we all thought... we'd never see him again? And I was so sad I didn't think I'd ever feel bette?" The bunny made her best effort to nod once. "But then you came here, Cream, and you made me smile for the first time in ages."

At this point, he felt the knots in her chest begin to quiver as tiny sobs filled the immaculate room.

"I know how you feel," he told her softly, "and I promise, one day, you'll feel better."

The doe cried into his shoulder, squeezing his fur in her small hands, and sometimes crying an incomprehensible word or two.

When she exhausted herself and dropped, asleep, into Tails' lap, Knuckles paced over silently, then dropped onto the couch himself. For a while, the three embraced the bittersweet peace. Finally, Tails turned to the echidna.

"Knuckles," he whispered lowly, "what're we going to do?"

The guardian shook his head, glancing at Cream's sleeping form.

"I don't know," he replied, "but we can't go anywhere without her."

The fox looked down at her delicate fingers, still handing from his shoulder. He swallowed uncertainly, then turned his head.

"Knuckles, I'll stay here with Cream." The echidna opened his mouth to object, but Tails shook his head. "We'll be okay... go find Sonic and get him back to normal."

"Tails, don't be stupid," Knuckles growled. "There's no way I'm leaving you guys alone."

Tails exhaled. "It doesn't make sense for you to sit around doing nothing. Besides," he glanced down at Cream, then looked back up with his eyes full of intensity, "I can take care of her."

Knuckles frowned deeply.

"Please, Knuckles," Tails whispered. "We'll hide in my workshop. Not even Sonic could break through those doors. And you know nobody can save him but you."

The echidna wrung his wrists for a moment, then sighed, though he still didn't look totally convinced.

"Alright," he muttered, trying to ignore an underlying worry that he would regret this decision. "But don't you dare leave that workshop."

Tails nodded as the echidna turned and jogged away.

"I'll keep her safe."

* * *

Knuckles trusted Tails, but he had witnessed Sonic's strength and speed first-hand. As he glided

away in the direction of Angel Island, the echidna could only hope that he'd done the right thing.

Ascending towards the island's edge, he felt the emerald's familiar energy begin to strengthen. But he noticed immediately something different about its frequency. Worried, the echidna lit on the earthy floor, and ran through the dense jungle. What could be after the Master Emerald right now? Surely, Rouge would be keeping Dr. Eggman entertained, making both of them unlikely candidates.

But Knuckles didn't have to wonder much deeper, because as soon as he got within eyeshot of the shrine, he almost fell over with shock.

Piling over one another, occasionally losing their grip and tumbling to the earth below, hundreds of chao coated the shrine, forming a massive, writhing mountain of pale blue. Individual bodies indistinguishable from the mass, they all seemed to be heading upwards. The emerald itself was buried up to its middle.

Flabbergasted, Knuckles stared in spite of himself until the distinct wing beats of a chao fluttered past his ear, snapping him out of his shock. Jumping slightly with surprise, he turned his head, then almost fell over once again.

The little chao hovering towards the throng was like no other the echidna had ever seen. Its skin had acquired a sort of flaky, scaly appearance, and its expression ball was conspicuously absent. Upon closer observation, as he stepped slowly forwards, Knuckles quickly realized that every one of the chao seemed to share these startling traits. The echidna felt an alarm go off in his head. He wasn't sure if it was his own intuition or the emerald's, but he knew that these visitors were bad news.

As soon as he made the realization, the entire island gave a great jerk, as the cretins began to push the emerald from its stand.

"HEY!" Knuckles exclaimed. Punting and shoving them from his path, he cleared the shrine's steps and reached the pinnacle. With a few brushes of his arm, he cleaned the gem's surfaces of clinging chao, then righted it up. The island settled again, rising gently back to its proper elevation.

After half an hour of removing listless chao from the shrine's top platform, Knuckles growled in frustration when they kept coming from every direction.

Finally running out of patience, he slapped his hand down onto the emerald. He didn't want to hurt them, but his island was more important to him than a bunch of deformed chao. Kicking a stray crawler at his ankle, the echidna ordered a wave of energy to bathe the area. Shutting his eyes as the shrine ignited in a flash of bright light, he let out a sigh of relief and removed his hand. But when he opened them again in satisfaction, the echidna's irritation only burrowed deeper.

Indifferent, the hoard continued to squirm upwards.

Growling in frustration, Knuckles realized that, for the safety of his island, the only thing he could do was eliminate them himself. Exhaling to compose himself, the echidna set to stomping, punching, and throwing.

It took hours, until the sun was high in the sky, before no more chao were crawling or grasping. Breathing deeply, annoyed with the universe for forcing him to do so much killing, Knuckles plopped to the stone next to the emerald. He shook his head at the mountain of chao bodies piled at the foot of the shrine.

The guardian assumed that before him lay the island's entire chao population, and was confident that no more would arrive. Still, he wondered what had happened to so disfigure the creatures, figuring it was safe to imagine that it was somehow connected to Sonic.

Clenching his teeth, Knuckles rose and glided over the hundreds of corpses, face set grimly.

He was going to find Sonic, and put an end to all this for good.

* * *

**A/N:** That's right! An on-time update! ... I mean, it's 11 pm, but still.

Ugh. Okay guys. My hyphens. FUCK, that is not okay. Like, okay. FFnet's going to tell me that they won't show up in reviews. That's upsetting, and it doesn't make sense, but whatever. But now I look, and they're not showing up in my stories? That's just not fair. What harm do two hyphens do? They do no harm. All they do is make a wicked awesome signature. Guysss. Can we please sign a petition or something?

Ugh.

Kay, whatever though. I'm fine. I guess it's really not that big of a deal... but... man.

This chapter is pretty much empty and stupid and bland as far as writing goes, but that's probably because I did the entire thing tonight. Haa, oh well.

I just need reviews right now or I'm going to fall into A DEEP DEPRESSION AND FALL IN LOVE WITH SHADOW.

Anyway :). Thanks for reading! Stay tuned on my profile, because Midnight Lullabye's gonna make me my next due date very soon. And next time, I won't procrastinate. Well, I can't promise that. But I will upload on time!

KAY! THANKS! See you next chapter!

-LA

- -LA?

aahhhh.


	19. Chapter 19

_Blue Mage Quartet, 16 minutes ago_: "Stone Cold is so close! You can do it!"

YES I CAN.

**A/N: **Update. A very on-time update. Not late at all.

Ahaa. Thanks for waiting, guys.

18 more reviews and this story will pass Familiar Stranger (eugh.) as my most reviewed. I would really appreciate that happening, because I'm seriously trying to erase that story from my memory.

And once again, for anyone who's just joining us now, there's a really nice summary at the beginning of chapter 17 of everything that's happened so far, so you don't have to read like 35000 words of silliness.

Thanks for reading, pumpkins!

-LA

* * *

This chapter is dedicated to my lovely friend Jake-X, because it's his birthday tomorrow (September 13th)! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BUDDY! I really wanted to write you a story for the big day, but then this chapter ended up being a loser and not getting done and all that junk. So anyway Jacob, you are a great special fella, aand not an abusive husband. I'm going to send you a hooker in a Big costume (belt and fishing rod. awwwyeah.)

LOVE YOU PAL!

**Free advertisement**: He's writing this amazing, epic story that he will be publishing eventually (I whip him once in a while to make sure he keeps writing), so make sure you put him on your author alert so you can read it when he starts! It's going to be WICKED.

Now, read on!

* * *

For a cave-dwelling, intrinsic existence, free of responsibility, trouble, even time, Amy found hers to be more regimented than ever before.

She awoke to silence at roughly the same time every morning, when the white sun beamed through the sky-filled gap between the treetops and the jagged roof of the cave's east-facing mouth. There was such utter peace in the moments when she was gently awoken by the crisp light that she often forgot sound existed until she untucked the folded legs beneath her, their soft noise scraping the numbness from her ears.

Every morning, at an hour before she arose, both Sonic and Cheese would leave, not to return until early afternoon. She didn't care to know where they went, or what they did, but it admittedly took some effort to dismiss the fresh red that stained their chapped bodies every time they returned.

The cave, which had hosted such resoundingly thunderous bellows and roars, always felt peaceful. The late morning sun cast a glow on the forest outside the entrance, and the trees stood tall and composed.

Amy spent these solitary hours in her own thoughts, sometimes wandering the woods nearest the cave's entrance, but more often simply sitting on her rock, awaiting their return.

Then, he would come home and pay attention to her. This was glorious.

Yawning mutely, Amy stretched her arms and slid from the rock. She had been working on clearing the filth from the ground after Sonic showed no objection, but the mystery liquid always seemed to refill itself by the time she next wanted to cross it. And yet, a part of her had been numbed, desensitized. She no longer felt sick at the thought of her feet dragging through the thick liquid; it was just organic matter, no different than hiking through the dead leaves in the forest floor.

There was a heavy warmth in the air today, so she made her way out under the pale sky. The light made her sneeze. Aimless, she swayed her arms and casually watched the ground for berries, collecting mushrooms and wildflowers as she went. After about an hour, when her stomach was full, she sat down on a nearby stump, adjusting her headband in content.

A jerk of movement caught her eye through the tree trunks, and she glanced up. The hedgehog was expecting to see some sort of animal, but she wasn't able to make it out anything detailed. Still, the more she squinted, the more she could see the distinct movement of something living. Curious, Amy got back to her feet, carefully caching the rest of her foragings between two protruding roots at the base of the stump. In no particular hurry, keeping quiet so as to avoid startling, she approached.

After about ten paces, she saw that the movement was coming from a patch of very familiar blue.

"Sonic?" she whispered to herself, smiling, and clasped her hands. Giving up the silence, she continued to walk contently forward, the leaves crunching beneath her boots announcing her to Sonic.

When she could make him out clearly, she saw that he was watching her. He had his back hunched over something on the ground, and his head turned acutely in Amy's direction. His body language didn't appear hostile, so she continued to approach. He let out a low bark-like noise, welcoming, then turned back to his business on the forest floor. Amy waved.

But when she neared, her smile began to slowly contort into something resembling a sickly grimace, and her gate degraded into a choppy stumble. On the mossy ground before Sonic a body was laid, face down, limbs sprawled, blood flooding the earth around it.

He glanced back at her, pale eyes so full of affection, and saw the distress in her face.

The same dark blood dripped feebly from his muzzle to his scarred torso.

Sonic got to his feet and came to her, wrapping his arms around her shoulders, and resting his chin on her head. Amy, feeling numb, saw her hands, frail and shaky, place themselves on his back, pulling him tight to her.

The blood was on her forehead now.

Sonic pulled away slightly, then lowered his head to look at her. Amy saw him through the damage, and felt her chest lurch with a dry, mute sob.

Slowly, he raised his head again and touched her ear with nose. Amy closed her eyes, and rested her cheek on his chest. They stood together.

She felt... okay. He was so gentle.

It was okay.

There was blood on her face.

As long as she had him.

It was okay.

* * *

In the expansive workshop, the place where he was most comfortable - where he thought, where he planned, where he created - it was easy for Tails to feel safe. The room was protected by foot-thick steel walls and guarded by a comprehensive alarm system, not to mention the rows of machines, both finished and unfinished, but most all armed in one way or another. So, the fox sat at his work bench with a welding torch, in his element and relishing it.

Cream struggled to share his peace.

Although she could see Tails' comfort in his body language and tried her hardest to absorb it, she looked and felt out of place on the cold, metal stool, feet dangling, fingers clasped uncertainly. The acidic smell of melting metal tickled her nose and hurt her head, and the looming, skeletal prototypes of devices-to-be frightened her.

Still, Tails' presence gave her something vaguely positive-feeling, and she was incredibly grateful to be with him. The bunny watched in mild interest, because he was the most comforting sight in the area, as the fox fused two slabs of thick metal together, his tongue stuck out in concentration.

"Tails," Cream began softly, trying to pinch dried mud from her soiled gloves. He didn't hear her, so she slid from the seat and stepped quietly towards his work bench. After watching for another moment, she tapped him on the shoulder.

Jumping slightly, the fox looked up from his tinkering and lifted the ashen welding mask to reveal a smile.

"Are you alright, Cream?" he asked, brushing off his hands and lowering his large, earmuff-like protective headphones around his neck.

She nodded. After swaying mutely on the spot for a moment, the bunny looked down at her fingers.

"Do you think," she asked softly, "that Knuckles will be able to fix Mr. Sonic?"

"Absolutely," Tails replied simply and without hesitance, the word full of hope. Cream smiled gratefully, but then her brow contracted and she looked away.

"How about my mother?" she squeaked. "And Cheese?"

Tails looked at the rabbit for a moment, then turned on his seat to face her. He took her hands gingerly.

"Soon," he told her, so much firm confidence in his voice she believed every syllable, "everything is going to be back to normal."

Cream felt her fear begin to diminish around its edges and she felt happy again.

"But in the mean time," Tails added, retracting his hands – the bunny felt a jot of loneliness - and gesturing to the table before him, "I'm going to replace the door into the house with this one so that nobody, not even Sonic, will be able to get in unless we let them."

Cream nodded her head and smiled at him. She trusted him entirely, and felt suddenly safe and at ease, although a shakiness still clung to her voice, like one who'd reached a moment of peace after being violently ill. She still didn't fully understand the situation, but Tails had promised her mother's return, and that was enough for her.

"Need anything else?" he asked, putting a hand on the visor of his mask to lower it.

"May I," she began meekly, "have a crayon please?"

Tails laughed and reached for a silver cup on the table to his right.

"Is a pen okay?" he asked, handing her one along with a small stack of grid paper. She nodded and hopped back to her stool, while Tails returned to his work. Having no desk or table at which to colour, she flounced to the ground. Or, rather, dropped. Her tattered dress no longer caught the air and fanned like a bell so she landed with less grace than the norm. Blinking, the bunny folded her legs and spread a slice of paper before her.

The slim pen felt spindly between her fingers and she was touched without warning by the urge to cry again. It wasn't loss now, though... just homesickness; a desperate thirst for life to stabilize. She made a line on the paper. The pen left a spidery trail behind it, much less forgiving than the luscious ones formed by steady wax crayons.

Through the air, thick with the metallic clanking and the humming of Tails' torch, Cream heard three small knocks whose quiet, hollow tone made her look up from the drawing. She watched Tails in curiosity for a few moments, trying to determine the source of the relatively exotic noise. But when it sounded again, the doe realized that it was not coming from the fox, but from the huge, steel garage door a few metres to her right.

Cream cocked her head and shuffled over to the door, pressing her ear to the cool metal. The beating came again, faint but very rapid. Cream glanced over at the fox.

"Tails," she called uncertainly. But he had his welding torch lit and spitting sparks on the ground around the bench, and was oblivious to her small voice. Frowning, the bunny turned back towards the door, noticing the taps beginning to grow slightly louder and more sporadic. She recognized it as the sound of someone knocking.

Cream pushed herself to her feet and, reflexively because when someone was knocking on the door you let them in, pushed the button with the up-arrow to the left of the door without much thought. With a low churn from overhead, the massive door began to lift. By the time Tails' yelp to stop reached her, a three foot patch of bright exterior was visible.

In a sudden, blurred frenzy, Cream was knocked to the ground. Tails' felt his insides lurch to his skull in one sick instant, and leapt from his stool, hardly hearing the welding torch clang as it was tossed to the floor.

Before he had so much as realized that he had gotten to his feet, Tails skidded to a halt before her.

* * *

The woods, now that he was alone and not distracted by the irritation of footsteps behind him, were closer to peaceful than anywhere he'd been for the past several days. As a result, they were being more generous in supplying him with stolen memories and realizations. Unfortunately, it was still not enough to let him crack the location of Sonic and Amy; he was occasionally hit with waves of total recognition, only to have the cognition recede, leaving him staring at a suddenly meaningless tree stump. As such, he had made scarcely any headway. He in part blamed the inability to regain the flushes of remembrance on the cocktail of worry, uncertainty, and guilt simmering persistently at the back of his mind. Still, he pushed on through the dense brush, following a random intuition that he could only hope had some substance behind it.

Knuckles wondered, surprised to see the subject pop into his head, what Rouge had accomplished. He didn't care about Eggman's diabolical scheme or the mechanics behind it, but he had to hope that whatever the bat managed to find out could provide some insight as to how things might be returned to their equilibrium.

By this time, the echidna had been retracing the woods for the better part of the day, and watched with his face set grimly as the sun's bottom edge began to touch the spires of the tallest trees.

He squeezed his fists in frustration, feeling betrayed by his own mind.

The echidna was hit by a sudden but definite twinge of energy as it pulsed through the air, and froze in his steps to analyze it. But by the time he'd begun to digest its signature, it was gone, leaving only a faint hum of trace Chaos energy. Knuckles furrowed his brow, and decided to follow the source of the spurt west, squinting against the bright sun. He was occasionally touched by chills as soft, cool breaths of wind passed by, and appreciated the balance of nature at those moments.

Having no better lead to follow, the guardian continued in the general direction for around an hour, until the sky had smeared into a dusky haze. Surrounded by the never-ending backdrop of nondescript woods, Knuckles finally stopped, sighing heavily. The echidna forced himself to accept that any memories he was trying to stimulate were buried too deeply, and that his time and effort should be spent elsewhere.

But when he turned to start for Angel Island again, a slight difference in lighting to his right caught his eye and pried him from his thoughts. The echidna stepped towards the thinning woods, and found himself at the fringe of a wide field of what appeared to be waist-high, lime green ferns, their colour dimmed by the twilit air.

Mildly surprised, Knuckles took a few steps, feeling the fronds brush gently against his sides. They had a welcome softness compared to the scraping branches and constricting mass of trunks making up the forest. But now that the sky above him was clear from the canopy, he could see the keenest of stars beginning to show through gaps in the wispy cloud layer, and the round moon blushing pale silver low in the sky. The flexible stems parted so easily that they sprung back into shape, showing no visible path behind him. When his legs displaced the plans, he caught a glance of his shoes pressing into rich, mahogany soil. Knuckles estimated that the slightly oblong clearing spanned for another hundred metres before dissolving back into woods.

Just then, he felt another subtle wave of energy pass over, and then another. His head snapped up. This time, he recognized it almost immediately as a Chaos Emerald. Whatever the origin, it was approaching fast.

In the span of a few seconds, his brow furrowed, and then rose when he realized the only thing that could be carrying an emerald that fast.

"_Sonic,_" he muttered, instinctively ducking low beneath the cover of the ferns.

Shutting his eyes to concentrate on the energy signal, the echidna calculated that Sonic was headed directly for the clearing. He felt another pulse, and it took him a moment to realize that it was his own solid worry, beating from his stomach, drawing his willpower densely into pools in the soil. But Knuckles blinked and squeezed both fists until the blood in his system was flowing enough to drown out any hesitance.

Sonic was moments away when it occurred to the echidna that he had no way of stopping something moving at the speed of sound. And furthermore, no way of figuring out the exact line through the wide field he would take, or if he'd even continue along that course.

But before the echidna could even begin to conceive a solution, he felt a sudden rush of wind rustle the ferns as Sonic halted before the clearing. Knuckles caught sight of his shadowy figure beneath the dim cover of the trees. No matter his reason, the hedgehog seemed frozen in his tracks.

The echidna felt the realization press against his chest that now was the time. Clenching his teeth, he slunk low beneath the ferns, and began to crawl between the flexible stems, keeping as silent as possible, but edging over the moist soil hastily.

As he approached, the muffled sound of slow steps being taken made him spring forward, for fear of Sonic shooting away.

Knuckles' fists impacted solidly, and though it was too dark to orientate, knocked Sonic to the ground, from which the hedgehog immediately righted himself. But when Knuckles drew back to prepare for another strike, he was interrupted by a startlingly sharp yell from his target, whose voice, and its ability to form lucid words, made it immediately clear that this was-

"CHAOS-"

... Not Sonic.

"-CONTROL!"

A flash of green light and another surge of Chaos energy introduced Shadow, menacingly illuminating a deep scowl across his muzzle. Before Knuckles could react, he felt himself slammed into the nearest tree, back pinned. Shadow's forearm pressed firmly against his throat, and his keen cardinal eyes made out the identity of his attacker in the low light. To Knuckles' muted distress, Shadow's eyeridge dropped into a glare of even more venom. Without a word, he threw the echidna to the mossy ground.

"Shadow!" Knuckles coughed in bewilderment, scrambling from the soil. "Hold on!"

The hedgehog's eyes narrowed as the guardian righted himself, and for a moment he seemed to uncoil slightly from his tense fighting stance.

But then, without warning, he lunged again at the echidna, who leapt out of the way, catching Shadow's shoulder with the back of his fist. The hedgehog turned sharply on his heel.

"Wait!" Knuckles shouted, palms in the air, before Shadow could retaliate.

While he didn't let his guard down, the hedgehog's fists did appear to loosen slightly.

"You..." he said lowly, "are alive?"

The echidna stared in bewilderment for another moment, until he realized the whole misunderstanding.

"_Yes,_" he chuckled in relief, shaking his head, "I'm-"

But he was cut off by an abrasive voice, crackling from a band on Shadow's wrist.

"_Agent Shadow,_" it barked, "_report your status_."

After regarding the echidna for another wary moment, Shadow turned away and raised his arm.

"Shadow reporting," he began calmly, as if he hadn't just broken from combat. "I have yet to locate the target, but I am in the process of exploring a lead. I'll report back shortly."

He twisted a knob on his wristband, then turned back to Knuckles.

"Where is Sonic?" he demanded.

The echidna blinked.

"What makes you think I'd know where he is?"

"I was under the impression," the hedgehog said coolly, "that you were one of them."

"'One of them'?" Knuckles repeated, confused. "How... how many people has he gotten?"

"Thousands."

Knuckles felt his blood freeze, thinking of Tails and Cream.

"And the number is growing exponentially. There's widespread panic around the globe," Shadow went on, pacing towards the echidna. "G.U.N. has initiated an evacuation to New Prison Island, but they can only house so many."

Knuckles was speechless.

"The enforcements have been able to stop many of them, but Sonic is spreading the virus at a faster rate than any of the others."

"So," the echidna digested, "they sent you?"

Shadow nodded.

Knuckles was silent for a moment, then looked at the hedgehog.

"I think I can help," he said slowly. "But we're going to need Chaos Emeralds."

* * *

**A/N: **DONE, finally! Oh, my! Yet again, my summer was somehow COMPLETELY unproductive. I spent 99% of my time working, and the rest tanning unsuccessfully. Basically a summer well-spent. So I'm back to school now (should really be multitasking reading Heart of Darkness and doing maath right now.) It's nice to be back, I suppose, but it's getting COLD outside, which frightens me. I don't want winter, guys.

Shitty chapter, I know. Sorry about the rushed ending and whatnot... you guys know how Shadow makes me. But we're getting close to the end! I'm thinking, maybe three more chapters?

It occurred to me a while ago that this whole plan of Eggman's is kinda absurd and not logical, but whatever. All that matters to me is that my plots make more sense than Snakes on a Plane.

SO YEAH! Thank you so much for ploughing through 3000 words of nothing. REVIEW PLEASE!

(:!

-LA

The hyphens are still on crack. ERGH. - -LA.


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